Evan Ebel

Every year 10 million people funnel in and out of America's jails and prisons. And every year some of them get lost. Recently there have been two high-profile cases of such inmates — one who got out years too early, and one who stayed years to long. Both had disastrous consequences.

Officials said Monday that a clerical error allowed the man suspected of killing Colorado's prisons chief to be released from custody about four years too early, the Associated Press is reporting.

Colorado authorities say the 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun used in a Texas shootout last week was the same weapon involved in the earlier slaying of Tom Clements, chief of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

A Colorado parolee who may be linked to the killing of the head of Colorado's Department of Corrections this week led Texas deputies on a high-speed car chase that ended with him being shot. The suspect was a member of a white supremacist prison gang.