Inmates’ public records requests rapped

OLYMPIA – Felons who have not had their civil rights restored should not have the same rights to public records that others have, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna says.

McKenna makes the assertion in a friend-of-the-court brief that is to be filed with the state Court of Appeals in a case concerning an imprisoned arsonist who’s been trying to dig up information on the judges, lawyers and corrections officers who helped put him behind bars.

In the filing obtained by the Associated Press, McKenna – a proponent of public records access – says that inmates’ rights under the Public Records Act are “fundamentally inconsistent with the objectives, needs and realities of the prison system and the legal status of inmates.”

McKenna said Monday that the brief doesn’t conflict with his advocacy on public records.

“I’m an ardent defender of the First Amendment, but I don’t think you can yell fire in a crowded movie theater,” he said. “The massive abuse of the Public Records Act by inmates is a threat to the use of the sunshine laws by legitimate requesters.”

In 2007, 73 percent of public records requested from the Department of Corrections came from offenders, a total of 4,917 requests, according to McKenna’s office. Corrections staff spent more than 12,000 hours responding to the requests at a cost of more than $250,000.

McKenna’s office noted that one inmate alone made 788 requests during a five-month period; other inmates have sought everything from user names and log-ins for corrections employees to all Washington Corrections Center audio and video recordings, past and present.

“It’s astounding, absolutely astounding, how many abusive requests there have been and how rapidly the abuse of the records act has grown among inmates,” McKenna said.

The filing, requested by the Court of Appeals, was submitted Friday evening.

The case involves Allan Parmelee, who in 2004 was convicted at his second trial of first-degree arson in the firebombing of a vehicle belonging to his ex-wife’s divorce lawyer and another belonging to a lawyer who represented his roommate’s ex-girlfriend. His first trial ended in a mistrial because he was found to have personal information about the jurors.

While in prison, Parmelee has made hundreds of requests, seeking records that include addresses, photos, pay, schedules, professional histories and birth dates of Washington State Patrol troopers and state Department of Corrections staff.

In March, a King County Superior Court judge ruled she had no authority to bar Parmelee from making the requests.

McKenna said his reading of the law is clear.

“The state doesn’t allow inmates to physically harass or intimidate corrections officials or other officials. It doesn’t make sense that the law would allow them to use the public records as a means of coercion,” he said.

In the brief, McKenna said if inmates have access to public records under the act, it “allows inmates, including inmates with a history of violence, like Mr. Parmelee, to engage in harassment and intimidation of staff, to disrupt prison order by diverting its resources, and to waste the public’s money on an extraordinary scale.”

Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said the coalition was still analyzing the brief to determine the impact of it.

But he said if the appeals court decides to adopt McKenna’s line of reasoning, “this would be a significant change that we don’t think would be in the best public interest.”

The brief argues that just as incarcerated felons lose the right to vote, hold public office and serve on a jury, that until their civil rights are restored “they forfeit the legal authority that citizens exercise over their government to influence its decision-making processes.”