Wash. might limit inmates' access to records

SEATTLE -- An entrepreneurial spirit struck Allan Parmelee last fall as he sat in a Washington state prison, where he's serving 17 years for bombing the cars of two lawyers.

According to the state attorney general's office, Parmelee wrote to his brother -- who's serving 11 years in Michigan for child pornography -- saying they could make a killing collecting fines from government agencies around the country that take too long to respond to burdensome requests for public records.

"It's like selling real estate, except easier and more predictable," he wrote in the letter.

That abusive attitude toward public records is nothing new for Parmelee and a handful of other prisoners in Washington state who have used the Public Records Act to annoy, harass and simply get back at the people who put them and keep them behind bars, state officials say.

Lawmakers say the problem has worsened dramatically in the last few years, and they're ready to stop it by allowing judges to restrict how much access inmates have to public records.

Judges' decision

The state House and Senate are both expected to pass bills that would permit agencies or public employees who are the target of records requests filed by inmates to take those requests to a judge. The judge could strike the requests upon finding they are intended to harass or intimidate, or that the disclosure of the records would jeopardize security. The judge could also require that any future requests by the prisoner be approved by the court.

Some states have already taken steps to deal with prisoner requests. Ohio requires inmates to have their requests for records of a criminal investigation or prosecution approved by a judge, and Michigan and Virginia exclude inmates from their public records access laws.

Washington's Department of Corrections and the state lawyers who handle its public records litigation say the legislation would dramatically cut the amount of time they spend on frivolous or intimidating requests. Last year, the department received more than 11,000 public records requests, and 8,000 of those came from offenders -- a 64 percent jump from 2007.

The majority of those requests are legitimate, the department says -- inmates seeking records about their cases, for example. But the agency points to a few prisoners it considers abusive, and Parmelee tops the list.

The department staff has logged nearly 4,900 hours responding to Parmelee's 812 public records requests, some seeking photos and personnel files of the agency's staff. He's also won thousands of dollars in penalties in cases where the agency fought his requests, but the state has taken steps to apply those fines to his legal obligations.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Tim Lang described Parmelee's business proposal to his brother during a Senate committee hearing on the legislation.

"These requests carry with them the implicit threat -- sometimes the explicit threat -- that this offender will do everything he can to use this information to find out where these public employees live and to undermine their sense of security and safety in their homes," Lang told the committee.

On Friday, Lang added that Parmelee has been awarded a total of $43,811 in two cases against the department. Close to $10,000 of that went to his attorney, and King County is attempting to get the rest to partially cover the restitution he owes, Lang said.

Attorney General Rob McKenna requested the legislation after Parmelee sought personal information about lawyers in his office.

"Everybody would agree that some felon who is pursuing an appeal to their case should have access to the records pertinent to their case," said Republican state Sen. Mike Carrell, who sponsored the measure. "The concern is not that they're trying to mine information about their case, but whether this is an open pit mine or a tunnel."

While the measure appears to enjoy bipartisan support, it causes heartburn in some quarters.

Seattle open-government lawyer Michele Earl-Hubbard agrees that Parmelee's requests seem badly motivated, but she says it's dangerous to let the government decide what information is important for inmates to have.

Parmelee's attorney, Michael Kahrs, wouldn't comment on his client's lawsuits but said inmates have a vested interest in being able to gather information about how the state operates.

The Washington Coalition for Open Government is concerned that the measure could be a slippery slope that could lead restrictions on access to public records for anyone, not just prisoners, said the group's president, Toby Nixon. However, he said the organization will go along with the bill for lack of any better ideas on how to block abusive requests.

"If we don't give the DOC and possibly other agencies the ability to deal with Allan Parmelee, it ends up poisoning the situation for everyone else," Nixon said.