Request By:
Mr. John H. Hoefker
747 Honeysuckle Drive
Taylor Mill, Kentucky 41015
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether records containing the identity of persons who are paroled from state penitentiaries are to be made available for public inspection under the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884.
It is our opinion that such records must be open for public inspection.
KRS 197.170 provides as follows:
"(1) The superintendents of the state penitentiaries upon the release of any prisoner or inmate from confinement, shall immediately notify the circuit court, the commonwealth's attorney of the district, the county attorney and sheriff of the county and the chief of police of the city, to which the inmate is released, giving the residence of the person released and the name of the person to whom he was released.
"(2) If the circuit court notified pursuant to (1) of this section is a court other than the court which sentenced the inmate, the superintendent shall also notify the sentencing court."
When any one of the local officers named in the above quoted statute receives formal notice from the superintendent of the penitentiary that a named convict has been released to reside in his jurisdiction, the formal notice is a public record which any person has a right to inspect under KRS 61.870 et seq.
The local officer is not required to make any publication of the fact that he has received notice of a prisoner's release and, therefore, any person desiring such information will have to make an inquiry from time to time and request to inspect any notices which the local officer has received.