Paige Grable won’t be released on Friday from the Madison Correctional Facility, as reported Tuesday.
The Indiana Department of Correction in a late-Wednesday press release said it reviewed the specifics of the 19-year-old Floyds Knobs woman’s pending release and determined she will remain in jail until at least Feb. 11.
The DOC said the mistake came in giving Grable — who earlier this year admitted her drunken driving in October 2006 led to the death of fellow Providence High School student John Gatz, 16 — 284 days of credit for completing her high school diploma while incarcerated. The DOC says she first completed her General Equivalency Diploma, and should only receive credit for that degree. That credit totals 183 days.
“Our own internal policy states that an offender is only eligible to earn education credit time for the completion of either a GED or high school diploma in the order of completion,” said DOC Commissioner J. David Donahue in the release. “In this case, Ms. Grable completed her GED several days before the completion of her high school diploma,” he said.
Grable began serving a 30-month prison sentence in May, but credit for time served and the then-284 day credit meant Grable was expecting to leave prison and return home Friday. That angered Gatz’s family and Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson, who called a joint press conference Tuesday to voice frustration.
“Who in the world gets a GED and a high school diploma back to back unless they were hoping to skirt the system?” wondered Henderson at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
At that time, Henderson and the Gatz family believed Grable was receiving credit for both diplomas after e-mails to the family from DOC indicated as much. Henderson had expected Grable to be released in August 2008, 15 months after her May 16 sentencing. Having believed that Grable completed her diploma through the correspondence courses before entering prison, Henderson did not expect her to earn any further time off.
The family used the news of the release delay to emphasize a point they made at the Tuesday press conference — something is wrong with a system which awards hundreds of days of credit to prisoners for completing diplomas.
“This should not have been an ordeal to begin with and we will press legislators to consider amending the law regarding educational credit, especially for short-term prisoners,” a statement released to the media reads.
State Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany, said she and colleague Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville — both of whom the Gatz family called for assistance — will investigate the language of the state’s educational-credit program before the new legislative session begins in January.
Stemler hopes to have a bill to Gov. Mitch Daniels before the session end in March, he told The Evening News and The Tribune’s newsgathering partner WLKY-TV in Louisville.
After her release, Henderson said, Grable will be subject to prison parole for two years and Floyd County probation for 18 months. Her driving privileges were suspended for two years in May.
Meanwhile, the Gatzes are raising money to set up two college scholarships in their son’s name, one for a Providence High School student and one for a student in either Clark or Floyd County.
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