Request By:
[NO REQUESTBY IN ORIGINAL]
Opinion
Opinion By: Albert B. Chandler III, Attorney General; Amye L. Bensenhaver, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter having been presented to the Attorney General in an open records appeal, and the Attorney General being sufficiently advised, we find that the Department of Corrections properly relied on KRS 197.025(2), incorporated into the Open Records Act by operation of KRS 61.878(1)(l), in denying Eric K. Murrell's November 15, 1999, request for "C.P.P. 15.3 as it read in 1987, 1989, 1991." We believe that 98-ORD-150, as it relates to the 1998 amendments to KRS 197.025, is controlling. A copy of that decision is attached hereto and incorporated by reference. Although Mr. Murrell vigorously argues that Corrections' policies and procedures relate directly to him, we find that this argument is tenuous at best. As he subsequently notes, such policies and procedures are "applicable to every inmate housed by the Department of Corrections." To require disclosure of this record to Mr. Murrell, and "every other inmate housed by the Department of Corrections "with a similarly tenuous claim, would defeat the purposes for which KRS 197.025(2) was enacted. In the absence of any evidence of an abuse of the discretion vested in the Department of Corrections by KRS 197.025(2), we affirm the Department's denial of Mr. Murrell's request.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882. Pursuant to KRS 61.880(3), the Attorney General should be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.