Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna says he promotes open government and access to information – except when the people seeking information are incarcerated. Attorney General McKenna is requesting that the legislature pass Senate Bill 6294 and House Bill 3219 which restrict prisoners’ access to public information. The legislation directs that any penalties that would be paid to a prisoner if a court decides that the state improperly denied him or her information would instead go to the crime victims’ compensation program.

Recently, a court awarded Prison Legal News $541,000 in penalties because the State of Washington had improperly denied editor Paul Wright access to records that revealed dangerous problems with prison medical care in Washington. Mr. Wright began his request for records many years ago while he was in prison. Had the proposed legislation existed at the time, Mr. Wright and Prison Legal News could have been denied access to the records and denied compensation for the long effort and legal battle required to shed light on real and deadly problems in Washington’s prisons.

This news brief is based on a story in the Seattle Weekly, Mr. Sunshine is Leaving Prisoners in the Dark [1]. If the link is broken, check the newspaper’s archives.