This just in: Prison workers under investigation in Olson release

Five employees at the prison from which former SLA member Sara Jane Olson was mistakenly released a year early are under investigation, state officials said today. Michael Rothfeld reports that the employees include three rank-and-file workers who calculate inmate release dates and two administrators.

Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, was in prison for crimes she committed with the radical group in Los Angeles and Sacramento counties in 1975. She was freed March 17, but after an outcry by local law enforcement agencies, state officials realized she must serve at least one more year. Olson was rearrested Saturday and has been returned to prison in Chowchilla.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[Daniel N. Fox]

About the release, and reversal of release, of Sara Jane Olson: to let her go and then re-arrest her, is cruel and unusual punishment. There is no indication that any continued time she spends in prison will serve to protect the public. I think the habeas corpus petition her lawyers have filed should be granted.