Inmates sue for access to law library

News Out Of Florida says two Broward jail inmates claim in court papers that their constitutional rights will be violated if the sheriff replaces the law library with an online system that prevents them from leaving their cells. Civil rights and defense lawyers say the new system can work, but they are skeptical. A court-appointed overseer will inspect the new library system next month as part of a 1977 lawsuit that still regulates inmate conditions, according to American Civil Liberties Union Prison Project lawyer Eric Balaban.

July 16, 2004 by Uncategorized 2

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2 Responses

  1. mdoneil says:
    July 16, 2004 at 6:27 pm

    BFD
    I guess suing the county gives you something to do if you are in jail, but you think the lawyers would have more sense. What law office would not like this type of set up, electronic access for free.

    Other jails are using it without problems. A partnership between LexisNexis and Touch Sonic Technologies is working in other jails now.

    Versuslaw is now moving into electronic access in Federal prisions now that contracting rules allow individual prisons to select vendors. Previously contracting was done on a national level with WestLaw.

    The electronic databases which are not Internet connected is updated more frequently than print, and costs less than print. Contracts vary but most are updated monthly but all are updated no less frequently than quarterly. The kiosks can be moved to the individual housing units or to individual inmates thus reducing the movement of inmates an always dangerous task.

    Perhaps they should stick to complaining about the food, lousy pillows or rough toilet paper.

    Reply
  2. leeb says:
    July 16, 2004 at 9:12 pm

    When the shoe’s on the other foot
    They are quick to notice when “their” rights are being violated. Why don’t they spare a moment to think why they are in prison to begin with: they violated the law, i.e. they committe a crime by violating someone else’s rights, such as stealing their property. Maybe this is karma!

    Reply

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