There was more to Gov. Pat Quinn's early prison inmate release plan than was publicly acknowledged.

It was so obvious that the state's early release program for state prison inmates would run off the rails that it's almost pointless to say, "Told ya' so."

One would have to be blind not to have seen this train wreck coming. But there is a duplicitous twist that most people didn't anticipate, one that grew out of bureaucratic stealth and an effort to keep the public in the dark.

For those who haven't been paying attention, Gov. Quinn in September proposed an early release program as a means of saving taxpayer dollars.

He's not blind to the political realities or the history of programs like this in Illinois. So Quinn promised that the inmates who were released would be carefully screened, would not be violent offenders and would be carefully supervised while out in the community.

But according to an Associated Press report, the state's prison system also implemented a parallel release program that went unannounced. The AP reports that it was called "MGT push," because it awarded inmates unearned meritorious good time and pushed them out the prison door early.

DOC indicates that 117 out of roughly 1,000 inmates under the program Quinn announced have been released, but that roughly 800 have been released under the MGT push program that was not disclosed.

The average time served by those released under the MGT push program is 16 days, according to the AP, and that has prosecutors howling.

How do things like this happen? Chalk it up to mindless bureaucracy that turns rules, as they are properly understood, on their head.

Prison inmates can earn time off their sentences if they behave themselves behind bars. It's a perfectly sensible reward, one that benefits inmates, prison employees and the public if handled appropriately.

But under the MGT push plan, the goal of the DOC bureaucracy was just to get inmates out the door almost as soon as they came in. So DOC waived its rule that inmates must serve at least 61 days in prison before they are eligible to earn good time.

Then, DOC granted six months of good time to incoming inmates, most of whom are required to serve only half their sentences if they behave.

After adding up all the sham rewards, hundreds of incoming inmates were eligible to go shortly after they arrived.

The AP report shook Quinn into immediate action. He suspended the secret MGT push program and was planning to meet with his newly appointed DOC director, Michael Randle, to determine what is going on. Well, it's obvious. DOC paired Quinn's program with one of its own to reduce the state's prison population. One was announced, and one wasn't. Presumably, all those released would be attributed to Quinn's public plan while the private plan remained unknown.

Unfortunately, a large number of undeserving inmates who have been convicted of serious crimes – battery, weapons violations, DUI accidents involving injuries, robberies – were simply let go after doing hardly any time at all.

Illinois has been through this drill before, and this is what is involved.

Unaccountable bureaucrats in DOC and the governor's office are willfully undermining the judicial system by taking it upon themselves to reverse the decisions of judges and juries. What's the point of having a court system if this is the result?

Further, many of those who are released inevitably get in trouble again, raising questions about what DOC was doing and producing a scandal that undermines the public's faith in government. So here we go again.