As an idea of how ridiculous it can be, I’ll never forget the day at work when I walked into my office, and saw three files about six inches thick on my desk.  There was a note on top from my boss, to come see him about this guy, as he was being released onto supervision in the next few days.  When I got into his office we went over several things in regards to this individual.  As I was leaving his office, he stopped me and said don’t forget the rest of his files!  There were two more boxes full of more files.  This guy had been in and out of jail, on and off probation, and parole (which can have concurrent or consecutive times), had multiple cases, and even some federal time dating from the 80’s to 2000’s. Talk about a time accounting nightmare.  He wasn’t the only one I saw like that either. I don’t think anyone should be in prison more than they are supposed to, but it’s a complicated mess and it’s going to occasionally happen.  I also think much of this lays on the offender.