re: Not getting timely released from jail after sentence ends

quote:

---

The sheriff’s office claims its hands are tied. Once a judge sentences someone to DOC custody, even if in the next breath the judge credits the person for time served, the sheriff’s office no longer has authority over that inmate, an OPSO spokesman wrote in a statement for this story. The only way they could free such a person is if DOC orders their release.

To get such a release, the sheriff’s office first must send the inmate’s paperwork to the department of corrections. But it doesn’t do so electronically. Once a week, every Thursday, an OPSO employee actually drives 68 miles to the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel to hand-deliver that week’s paperwork. The sheriff’s office then holds the inmate indefinitely until it hears back from DOC. For Grant, this took 13 days.

---

Holy crap. What happens if the person gets in an accident on the way to the facility and all the paperwork gets burned up?