Request By:
Michael DeSpain, # 85419
Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex
200 Road to Justice
West Liberty, KY 41472Jennifer Hatcher
Department of Corrections
Office of General Counsel
2439 Old Lawrenceburg Road
Frankfort, KY 40602
Opinion
Opinion By: Albert B. Chandler III, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, 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 Michael DeSpain's requests for copies of any regulation, statute, policy or procedure used or relied upon to calculate his twenty-year sentence, any regulation referencing KRS 533.060, and any administrative regulation, memorandum, internal policy or other action referencing Riley v. Parke. We believe that 98-ORD-150, as it relates to KRS 197.025(2) , which states that the Department does not have to comply with a request from an inmate confined in a penal facility unless the request is for a record that pertains to that individual, and 00-ORD-130, that holds that the Open Records Act does not require public agencies to carry out research or compile information to conform to a given request, are controlling. A copy of those decisions are attached hereto and incorporated by reference.
Although Mr. DeSpain vigorously argues that the requested records relate directly to him, we find that this argument is tenuous at best, as such statutes, regulations, policies, and procedures are applicable to every inmate housed by the Department of Corrections. To require disclosure of this record to Mr. DeSpain, 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. The Department advised Mr. DeSpain that he could request assistance in conducting legal research from a resident legal aide at his institution or an attorney or paralegal with the Department of Public Advocacy and that the Kentucky Revised Statutes and Corrections Policies and Procedures were available in the inmate legal library for his use. 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. DeSpain'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.