Napa jail boss quits after 6 months

Home » News » Local

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Comment

By Register Staff

County mistake: 25 jail inmates released early

Napa County’s new jail director has resigned, only six months after taking the helm.

Julie Hutchens, who became director of the Napa County Department of Corrections in September, gave notice last week, according to Napa County Public Information Officer Elizabeth Emmett.

Hutchens cited family reasons in her resignation letter, according to Emmett, and planned to return to Siskiyou County, where she last worked as jail commander and where members of her family reside.

Hutchens’ brief tenure was marked by an unusual mistake that resulted in the early release of 25 jail inmates.

On Jan. 9, the jail inadvertently released 25 inmates before their sentences were complete because of an error in calculating time credits for work and good behavior. All the inmates were eventually returned, with the exception of four who had a small number of days left on their sentences at the time they were released.

The Napa County Superior Court declared that the four had served their sentences.

Hutchens is technically on vacation until early March.

Lt. Dan Johnson, the assistant director of the Napa County Department of Corrections, has assumed Hutchens duties in her absence.

Emmett said the county expects to begin the search for a permanent replacement shortly.

5 comment(s)

chunk wrote on Feb 8, 2008 3:37 PM:

" this article states that she is leaving to go to Siskiyou county where her family lives and where she is from. why mention the release of the jail inmates. that's old news and in the past. probably had nothing to do with her leaving. "

truth wrote on Feb 8, 2008 4:14 PM:

" Yeah...just a coincindence... "

hudds5 wrote on Feb 8, 2008 4:52 PM:

" it's now time for the Sheriff's Dept. to take over the jail...just like the other California counties have done. "

rocketman wrote on Feb 9, 2008 7:38 AM:

" Having the Sheriff's office take over the jail is NOT a change that other counties have done. Sheriff run jails have been the norm. There are "some" advantages, but the cost of running this jail will skyrocket! You need the same amount of personnel and sworn positions are much more expensive than non-sworn positions. "If" this is a serious proposal, the County should take a lot of time to see if the advantages truly out weigh the costs. I agree with "Chunk", this move has nothing to do with the release of prisoners. That would have happened with anybody in charge and has happened before in Sheriff run jails! "

boots wrote on Feb 9, 2008 8:30 AM:

" Six months on the job and already has vacation till March on the books? Where do I apply for this job? "

Join the conversation

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Create an account

Comment Guidelines

The goal of the story comments section at NapaValleyRegister.com is to have an open, thought-provoking, civil community forum for all issues.

What gets your comment posted?

• Staying on topic

• Keeping your comment to 300 words or less

• Avoiding name-calling

• Addressing your comments to the message rather than the messenger

What gets your comment deleted?

• Personal attacks

• Derogatory remarks

• Name-calling of any sort

• Going off-topic

• Hate speech

• Racially-insensitive comments

• Implying guilt of a subject in a crime story before there is a court verdict

• Posting e-mail addresses

• Posting comments of a commercial nature

• POSTING WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

• Linking multiple comments together with "to be continued..." to get around the 300 word limit.

The fine print

- Comments are either approved or denied. We do not edit comments.

- You are welcome to modify and resubmit a denied comment.

- Comments may take several hours to be posted.

- Comments posted are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NapaValleyRegister.com, its employees or its parent company.

- Do you have information on a story? Please go to our virtual newsroom to send us a news tip.

- If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact online@napanews.com or add a comment indicating you have an issue and our moderators will review the comment in question.

Search: