Police seek two missing prisoners

Geiger Corrections investigators and Spokane police are searching for two inmates, one who was mistakenly released Tuesday and the other who escaped Wednesday.

Steven J. Siversten, 34, escaped out of a van Wednesday afternoon when he was being transported from Superior Court to the Airway Heights facility, Geiger Custody Manager Brett Sobosky said. He was being taken back to Geiger after he failed to post bond.

Siversten was prepared to post $10,000 bond for a charge of possession of a controlled substance, Sobosky said. Additional charges of delivery of controlled substances pushed his bond to $20,000, and he didn’t have that much money.

Sobosky said Siversten kicked out a window of the van and escaped on foot. There were seven inmates in the van, and the driver – who was separated from the inmates by a shield – couldn’t stop the escape, Sobosky said.

Officers found Siversten’s orange jail jumpsuit and learned he had stolen a bicycle after his escape.

Eric D. Peterson, 32, was mistakenly released Tuesday from the correctional center.

He was sentenced to 15 months in prison Monday after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine – and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He was supposed to be returned to the Spokane County Jail. Instead, Peterson was released with two other Geiger inmates who had completed their sentences, Geiger Director Leon Long said.

“We had a fairly new officer on,” Long said. “Two people were being released and one was supposed to be going back to the jail and was released, too.”

Peterson is 5 feet 7 inches and 200 pounds with short blonde hair and blue eyes. Siversten was described as 5 feet 10 inches and 175 pounds with brown hair, green eyes and a goatee.

Last July, Geiger corrections officers released an inmate a year early and didn’t realize the mistake until the man’s frightened ex-girlfriend called to say he had phoned her, saying, “I’m out.”

Francine Boxer, who was Geiger’s director at the time, said that error was the result of a filing system that only sorted inmates’ release dates by month, rather than month and year.

After last year’s incident, Boxer said the problem was fixed.

Asked how another inmate was let go without serving his sentence, Long said that he is investigating the matter.

“Sometimes officers are in the control room who aren’t supposed to be,” said Long.

He also said Geiger may create a new releasing officer position. That officer would be inmates’ last contact and would be responsible for double-checking paperwork.