N.S. prisoner mistakenly released after clerical error

Police are looking for a 19-year-old suspected thief who was mistakenly released from a Halifax court last week.

Chancelor Faulkner has been on the lam since his release last Tuesday, but the Nova Scotia Department of Justice was only notified about the apparent clerical error late Monday afternoon.

Department spokeswoman Sherri Aikenhead said there was an error on Faulkner's documentation indicating that he didn't need to return to jail aftera court appearance.

'Un-bleeping-believable' NDP justice critic Bill Estabrooks

"There was no paper missing," said Aikenhead.

Faulkner was convicted last Tuesday of possessing a prohibited weapon. He was supposed to be taken back to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth to await another court appearance on robbery and weapons charges on April 23. Instead, he was allowed to leave.

Aikenhead said the mistake was only discovered Monday after corrections officials made a routine check, noticed a discrepancy and then called the court to confirm Faulkner's status.

Halifax Regional Police have been looking for Faulkner since then. Meanwhile, the Justice Department continues to investigate the incident.

NDP justice critic Bill Estabrooks is shocked to hear of yet another mistaken release of a prisoner.

"Un-bleeping-believable," he said.

Faulkner is the latest prisoner to escape or be accidentally set free in the past 15 months.

After the last incident, Justice Minister Cecil Clarke said the department had streamlined its system so this kind of mistake wouldn't happen again. But he also said human error was sometimes unavoidable.

Clarke wasn't available for comment Monday.

Aikenhead said the department is still making changes recommended in a sweeping audit last December. She said it's automating the prisoner information system to minimize errors.

Estabrooks has his doubts.

"I'm just taken aback by it. We're going to have another review and another report, and there will be another glib conclusion that we'll do better next time, that we have to improve how we take care of these issues."