Miscellaneous

No Vacancy for (Some) Documents in the Crossbar Hotel

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Just how much information can inmates obtain? Do convicted felons have fewer rights than the rest of us?

The answers to these questions are as follows: "not too much" and "yes" (though here we are reminded by Groot's maxim, "people go to prison AS punishment, not FOR punishment").

The Washington state Court of Appeals held that inmates do not necessarily have a right to access all public records. An inmate made a Public Records Act request to attempt to obtain training records of a corrections officer. The request was granted all the way up to the prison mail room -- they were sent, but never reached him, as they were deemed contraband by the prison.

The records folks never questioned the status of the requester, and never denied his request. The hurdle was the prison security policy.

The dissent noted the clear conflict of laws in play, and voted in favor of the Public Records Act controlling.

The case, decided by a 5-4 nose, is Livingston v. Cedeno, No. 79608-4. It was, no doubt, colored by the Parmalee case. Parmalee was convicted of arson after firebombing his ex-wife's lawyers' cars. Parmalee had sought photos, addresses, salary information, and other dirt on state troopers and Corrections Department staff. See Idle Hands, court-o-rama (January 30, 2008). Definitely (we hope) a worst-case scenario.

WRT Livingston, see WA Court: Public Records Can Be Kept from Inmates, Curt Woodward, AP/Seattle Post Intelligencer (July 3, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on July 03, 2008 (boomark / email).