Jail computer crash: Outage delays release of some LA inmates

Some inmates at Los Angeles County's largest jail spent some extra time behind bars over the weekend due to an internet outage that has since been resolved.

That had jail officials scrambling to try and process the release of inmates manually, and the system caused some in custody to be held longer than they were supposed to. 

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said its "systems did not ‘crash’, nor were they the cause of the problem."

"This was a result of an AT&T loss of connectivity.  AT&T identified the source of the disruption and began to repair the damage. Some Department web applications were not accessible or intermittently connecting.  One of our web applications affected is the AJIS (Automated Jail Information System) which accesses several other databases and is used to assist with conducting inmate releases. Individuals up for release in our custody may be subject to warrants or holds from other jurisdictions. In the interest of public safety, all inmate release paperwork was judiciously verified prior to avoid possibly erroneously releasing an individual.  A few releases were unfortunately delayed," officials said in a statement. 

About five inmates were affected between Saturday afternoon through Monday when the connectivity was restored, authorities added.

The jail holds up to 4,500 inmates.