Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; Amye L. Bensenhaver, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter having been presented to the Attorney General on March 15, 2013, in an attempted appeal from Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex's February 22, 2013, denial of inmate Glenn Odom's February 19, 2013, open records request for maintenance reports, we find that Mr. Odom's appeal is time barred. KRS 197.025(3) requires persons confined in a penal facility to "challenge any denial of an open records request with the Attorney General . . . within twenty days of the denial . . . ." Although Mr. Odom dated his letter of appeal February 28, 2013, it did not reach this office until March 15, 2013, one day after the deadline for submission. Acknowledging that this works a hardship on Mr. Odom, and that part of the delay may have been occasioned by the U.S. Mail, we note that had his appeal been timely filed, the issue presented would have almost certainly been resolved against him insofar as KRS 197.025(2) authorized EKCC to deny him access to any record that did not "contain[] a specific reference" to him. EKCC invoked this provision in denying an earlier request for the same records submitted by Mr. Odom and referred to that denial in responding to the request from which Mr. Odom now unsuccessfully appeals.
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.
Distributed to:
Glenn OdomSonya WrightAmy V. Barker