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Broward County Inmates Sue to Prevent Closing of Jail Law LibrariesTwo jail inmates in Broward County, Florida, filed suit July 15 to prevent Sheriff Ken Jenne from shutting down the law libraries in the county’s jails and replacing them with an online service.Jenne began planning to convert the law libraries at the county’s five jails earlier this year into online systems for an annual savings of about $150,000, the Miami Herald reported July 16. Rather than conduct their own research, inmates would be allowed to submit one written request for legal research per week. The research would be conducted by sheriff’s office employees who have received 18 hours of training in legal research. Inmates fear the new system will slow down the research process. The online systems will be inspected next month by a court-appointed overseer, under terms of a 1977 lawsuit that still regulates inmate conditions, American Civil Liberties Union Prison Project lawyer Eric Balaban told the Herald. Voicing skepticism over the project, Balaban said, “The system can work, but there are a lot of hoops that have to be jumped through.” The Herald noted that the prisoners who filed the appeals court motion, Dennis McNeal and Frederick Oswalt, submitted 16 pages of documents that they obtained using the old library at the jail. Posted July 16, 2004. |
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