10-ORD-014 | KOGC

Opinion

Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; James M. Herrick, 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 Kentucky State Reformatory did not violate the Open Records Act in denying inmate William D. Woolum's December 21, 2009, request for a copy of an amendment to Corrections Policy and Procedures. Relying on KRS 197.025(2), 1 the Kentucky State Reformatory (KSR) explained that none of the requested records "contain a specific reference to you," 2 and that he was therefore foreclosed from inspecting them. We agree with this analysis and find that 03-ORD-150 and 09-ORD-057 are dispositive of the issue on appeal. Copies of these open records decisions are attached and hereby adopted as the basis for our decision in the present appeal. We find no error in KSR's denial of Mr. Woolum'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.

William Woolum, # 079194Marc AbeloveStafford Easterling, Esq.

Footnotes

Footnotes

1 KRS 197.025(2) provides:

KRS 61.870 to 61.884 to the contrary notwithstanding, the department shall not be required to comply with a request for any record from any inmate confined in a jail or any facility or any individual on active supervision under the jurisdiction of the department, unless the request is for a record which contains a specific reference to that individual.

2 Alternatively, KSR has asserted that under prior decisions of this office (99-ORD-35 and 99-ORD-181) Corrections Policies and Procedures are not public records. Because we affirm KSR's denial of Mr. Woolum's request on the basis of KRS 197.025(2), we do not address the agency's alternative argument.

LLM Summary

The Attorney General's decision affirms the Kentucky State Reformatory's denial of an inmate's request for specific corrections policies and procedures. The denial was based on KRS 197.025(2), which restricts inmates' access to records unless they specifically reference the inmate. The decision references prior opinions (03-ORD-150 and 09-ORD-057) as dispositive for this case, meaning they directly support the reasoning and conclusion reached. Alternative arguments regarding the public record status of the documents, referenced in 99-ORD-035 and 99-ORD-181, were noted but not needed for the decision.

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