QUEBEC - The Quebec government expressed embarrassment and anger Wednesday over the erroneous release of dozens of prison inmates, reportedly because of administrative mistakes.
Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis said he was feeling "a bit ashamed" over the reported errors, and said he hoped the province's correctional officials were feeling just as ashamed.
Dupuis was reacting to a report that 34 inmates were wrongly released from provincial prisons in 2009, thanks mainly to administrative errors, while 24 others were wrongly released the previous year.
The provincial facilities in Quebec City and St-Jerome are among the jails where mistakes were made, according to this week's report by Radio-Canada.
Dupuis has asked for details from his department. He said there could be sanctions against employees found responsible.
The Action democratique party expressed outrage over the errors, saying that a pedophile and spouse-abuser were among those released early.
Radio-Canada is the French-language CBC. Its report cited internal documents that described the errors, and it also quoted a correctional official conceding mistakes were made.
Dupuis said that even if there are sometimes "inherent difficulties in calculating a sentence," the erroneous release of prison inmates is "an outrage."
