Opinion
Opinion By: Daniel Cameron, Attorney General; Matthew Ray, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
On March 18, 2022, Josh Wood ("Appellant") submitted a request to the Department for "[a]ll 'inmate grievance forms' submitted by LMDC inmates" for a specific period of time. 1The Appellant indicated that the scope of his request included all documentation of responses, resolutions, and appeal decisions regarding inmate grievances for the same time period. On the same day, the Appellant received what appeared to be an automated response from the Department that indicated it had received his request. On March 30, 2022, having received no further response from the Department, the Appellant initiated this appeal.
Under KRS 61.880(1), upon receiving a request for records under the Act, a public agency "shall determine within five (5) [business] days . . . after the receipt of any such request whether to comply with the request and shall notify in writing the person making the request, within the five (5) day period, of its decision." Here, on appeal, the Department admits it received the request on March 18, 2022, but did not issue its response until April 1, 2022. Thus, it violated the Act.
On appeal the Department stated that it is denying the Appellant's request "in full" under KRS 197.023, which states that "[a] grievance report shall be an open public record and made available to any person who requests to see the file at the site as long as the inmate has signed a waiver of confidentiality." 2And here, there is no evidence that any of the inmates who submitted grievances that would be responsive to the request have signed any waivers of confidentiality. Accordingly, the Department did not violate the Act when it denied the Appellant's request under KRS 197.023(1).
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court under KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882 within 30 days from the date of this decision. Under KRS 61.880(3), the Attorney General shall be notified of any action in circuit court, but shall not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceedings. The Attorney General will accept notice of the complaint emailed to OAGAppeals@ky.gov.
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