Request By:
Duane Hawkins, # 082752
Marion Adjustment Center
95 Raywick Road
St. Mary, KY 40063Emily Dennis
Department of Corrections
Office of General Counsel
2439 Lawrenceburg Road
P.O. Box 2400
Frankfort, KY 40602-2400Lisa Lamb
Director of Communications
Department of Corrections
2439 Lawrenceburg Road
P.O. Box 2400
Frankfort, KY 40602-2400
Opinion
Opinion By: Gregory D. Stumbo, 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 Justice and Public Safety Cabinet's Correction Division did not violate the Open Records Act in the disposition of Duane Hawkins' November 10, 2004, request for "Marion Adjustment Center's annual evaluations for the year of 1999 through 2003 and 2004." 1 It is the decision of this office that the reasoning set forth in 03-ORD-073 is determinative of the issue on appeal. A copy of that decision is attached hereto and incorporated by reference. Because the Corrections Division is "not required to comply with a request for any record from any inmate confined in a jail or any facility . . . unless the request is for a record which contains a specific reference to that individual," pursuant to KRS 197.025(2), and the requested evaluations do not contain a specific reference to Mr. Hawkins, he is not entitled to inspect those evaluations.
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.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 Mr. Hawkins asserts that he had not received a response to his request as of January 8, 2005, the date on which he initiated this appeal. The Corrections Division indicates that it is unable to locate his request, substantiating its position with the affidavit of David Burt, Administrative Specialist III, in which Mr. Burt avers that he conducted a search of the appropriate files and did not find Mr. Hawkins' request. This office is not equipped to resolve a factual dispute of this nature and we therefore make no finding on this issue.