Request By:
Mr. Harold J. Buchignani
Director of Detention
Detention Center
Lexington-Fayette County
200 Clark Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40508
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General concerning the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884, and a request to inspect certain documents made by Mr. Charles Dearing, an inmate of the Fayette County Detention Center. Mr. Dearing requested access to financial and administrative records and the procedural manuals of the Detention Center. You request our opinion on the following issues:
"1. Are Detention Center records, which may jeopardize institutional security or administrative order, exempt from public disclosure?
2. Does an inmate retain the right to inspect public records?
3. Is it incumbent upon public agency to provide records to inmates who are unable to access public offices because of their legal confinement?
4. Are Detention Center records, which may jeopardize institutional security or administrative order, exempt from disclosure to inmates of the Facility?"
We will first answer questions 2 and 3. In answer to question No. 2, we believe that an inmate does have the right to inspect public records the same as any other person. In answer to question No. 3, we believe that it is not incumbent upon a public agency to provide records to inmates who are unable to go to the office where the records are kept because of their legal confinement. The Open Records Law does not contemplate that a public agency shall send requested records to a person who has not inspected them. KRS 61.874 provides as follows:
"(1) Upon inspection, the applicant shall have the right to make abstracts of the public records and memoranda thereof, and to obtain copies of all written public records. When copies are requested, the custodian may require a written request and advance payment of the proscribed fee. If the applicant desires copies of public records other than written records, the custodian of such records shall permit the applicant to duplicate such records, however, the custodian may insure that duplication will not damage or alter the records.
"(2) The public agency may prescribe a reasonable fee for making copies of public records which shall not exceed the actual cost thereof not including the cost of staff required."
The foregoing statute applies to all requesters, including inmates.
We can answer questions 1 and 4 together because we believe the same rule applies to the general public and to inmates of an institution as to records the disclosure of which may jeopardize institutional security or administrative order. You raise the following objection to the disclosure to the public of such records:
"A significant number of records and policy-procedural materials contain information that would jeopardize the security of a facility.. . . Policy and procedural manuals contain information such as shakedown procedures, hostage negotiations, riot control, emergency service procedures, and various other information which could aid an inmate in an escape or other breach of security. The disclosure of employee/personnel information could be used to jeopardize the safety of employee family members or perpetuate telephone harassment of the employee."
It is our opinion that policy and procedure manuals and other intra-office memoranda of a detention facility are exempt from the requirement of public inspection by KRS 61.878 (1)(h).
"Preliminary recommendations, and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended. "
A requester's reason for wanting to inspect certain public records is generally not a factor to be considered under the Open Records Law. Although the sensitive nature of the procedure manual of a detention center is easily recognized, there is no statute which expressly exempts records of such a nature. However, this office has consistently recognized that intra-office communications are exempt from mandatory disclosure by KRS 61.878(1)(h). A public agency whose function does not involve the peril which goes with a detention center operation may have a policy of making its procedure manuals available to the public when it believes it is in the public interest to do so. On the other hand, we believe that a detention center, jail or prison is fully authorized to forbid disclosure of documents which set forth procedure involving the security of the facility. General business records, however, do not come under this exemption.
In summary, an inmate has the right to inspect public records but he does not have to be specially accommodated; neither an inmate nor the general public has the right to inspect records in which policies are formulated or recommended.