The World-Herald discovered the errors while combing through the department’s website and a database of inmates’ prison dates and sentence lengths.

The results left Corrections officials scrambling, and authorities slack-jawed.

Kenney said he immediately consulted with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office to confirm that The World-Herald’s findings were right. He then began informing everyone in the prison system, from wardens to inmates. Kenney said his staff was breaking the news to about a dozen inmates slated to be released this month.

The message?

“They will not be going home when they thought they would be,” Kenney said.

Kenney, a longtime prison official who became director in September, said his office will consult with the Attorney General’s Office on whether the department will seek to round up inmates who already had been released.

Kenney said his staff had yet to sort out how many have been released and how many were set to be released.