WA: Prison Legal News Wins Records Case and Record Settlement
June 12, 2007 - 8:59am
The Washington Department of Corrections will pay Prison Legal News $541,000 in fines and legal fees for violating the state’s Public Records Act through withholding and destroying government documents related to medical abuse and neglect in Washington’s prisons. This is the largest settlement to date in a case involving the Public Records Act.
For years, Prison Legal News (PLN) has documented cases of medical abuse and neglect in prisons and jails across the country. In 2000, PLN editor Paul Wright requested documents relating to medical errors and discipline of medical providers in the Washington Department of Corrections. The DOC eventually turned over around 1000 pages but had blacked out so much of the documents that they weren’t useful. Further investigation revealed that the originals of many of the documents had been blacked out or redacted. The Washington Supreme Court finally ordered the DOC to turn over the complete documents. PLN hopes that the fine will encourage the Department of Corrections to be more forthcoming with records requests in the future.
This news brief is based on stories in the Olympian, Prisons must pay for delay on records, and Seattle Times, Corrections department secrecy brings record fine. If the links are broken, check the newspapers’ archives.
For years, Prison Legal News (PLN) has documented cases of medical abuse and neglect in prisons and jails across the country. In 2000, PLN editor Paul Wright requested documents relating to medical errors and discipline of medical providers in the Washington Department of Corrections. The DOC eventually turned over around 1000 pages but had blacked out so much of the documents that they weren’t useful. Further investigation revealed that the originals of many of the documents had been blacked out or redacted. The Washington Supreme Court finally ordered the DOC to turn over the complete documents. PLN hopes that the fine will encourage the Department of Corrections to be more forthcoming with records requests in the future.
This news brief is based on stories in the Olympian, Prisons must pay for delay on records, and Seattle Times, Corrections department secrecy brings record fine. If the links are broken, check the newspapers’ archives.
