The state has tentatively agreed to pay a total of $105,000 to two prison inmates who were both detained after they were supposed to be released, with one prisoner held at Halawa Correctional Facility for an extra 110 days.

Cleveland Ellis was sentenced to five years for burglary and kidnapping, but sued in federal court after he was released because he claimed he was held too long. Ellis alleged state officials failed to properly take into account the time Ellis had spent in jail awaiting trial before his conviction.

The attorney general submitted testimony to state lawmakers that said the Department of Public Safety reviewed Ellis' file and concluded he had been held for 110 days too long. Ellis' lawyer, Jack Schweigert, said Ellis was supposed to have been released Aug. 30, 2005, but in fact was not released until Dec. 15, 2005.

Meanwhile, Ellis has been returned to jail while awaiting trial on new drug charges.

In the second case, inmate Lawrence Gealon was held for 14 days after a judge ordered that he be released from the O'ahu Community Correctional Center in late 2004, according to the report to lawmakers. In Gealon's case, the release order was misplaced by staff at OCCC, according to the report to lawmakers.

State officials have tentatively agreed to pay $88,000 to settle the federal lawsuit by Ellis. Gealon sued in state court, and the state has agreed to pay $17,000 to settle that case. Both settlements are contingent on approval from the state Legislature.

$1.2 MILLION IN '04 CASE

This is not the first time mistakes over inmates' release dates have cost the state.

State officials agreed to pay $1.2 million in 2004 to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of as many as 500 inmates who were held too long in jail. That settlement covered claims by inmates from December 1999 to December 2002.

Lawyers in that case said the settlement money would be distributed to claimants based on $1,000 for each day they were improperly detained, and $3,000 if they were strip-searched.

Thomas Read, offender management administrator for the Public Safety Department, said the prison system has made a number of changes since the 2004 settlement to ensure inmates are released on time.

Read drafted a new policy for calculating the amounts of time inmates must actually serve, and public safety officials hold training sessions to instruct the prison staffs. Audits are also conducted to make sure the policy is being followed, he said.

"We're looking at what we can do to try to make sentence computation more consistent," Read said.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.