« Ind. Decisions - Upcoming oral arguments this week | Main | Ind. Courts - If approved, new local rule would give co-defendants the same judge »

Monday, September 01, 2008

Courts - More on: "Kentucky will retain all court records forever"

"Kentucky will retain all court records forever" was the headline to an April 14, 2007 report in the LCJ. This ILB entry has a quote from the no longer available online story:

Kentucky will retain all court records forever, the state's top court administrator said, addressing criticism after tens of thousands of old Jefferson County files were destroyed.

Records from across the state will be stored in a Frankfort warehouse that the Administrative Office of the Courts has budgeted $100,000 to rent, said Jason Nemes, who was named the agency's director Thursday after serving on an interim basis. * * *

AOC's handling of court records emerged as a hot topic last fall after the disclosure that it had destroyed misdemeanor records at least five years old in Jefferson County. Prosecutors and probation officers complained the purge made it more difficult to prove an offender's past misconduct.

The ILB has a number of entries on this Kentucky issue, including the initial coverage from Dec, 16, 2006, including this LCJ quote - emphasis added by ILB:
State court officials have endangered the public and undercut the prosecution of spouse abusers and other offenders by destroying all misdemeanor records 5 years or older, prosecutors and judges in Jefferson County say.

Interim Jefferson Circuit Clerk Michael Losavio said the Administrative Office of the Courts sent "six or seven burly men" to the courthouse Nov. 29 to haul away all microfilm and microfiche records dating from before 2001, all of which have since been destroyed.

Electronic records of old misdemeanor convictions also have been purged from the state court computer system.

State court officials say the records were destroyed based on a statewide document-retention policy amended last year to include electronic records. Previously, only paper court files were destroyed after five years under the policy, which is designed to free up space and save money on storage costs.

Something appears to have been lost in translation between then and now.

Yesterday, Jason Riley had this story in the LCJ, headlined "Kentucky needs new way to archive court records." [Thanks to the Kentucky Law Blog for spotting this story.] Some quotes:

In April of last year, the state's top court administrator said Kentucky would retain all court records forever, a response to widespread criticism after tens of thousands of old Jefferson County files were destroyed.

But now the state archives building in Frankfort and courthouses across Kentucky are overflowing with files of misdemeanors and traffic cases that used to be destroyed.

Officials say they must come up with a different solution.

"We are just out of room," said Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. "We're drowning in paper."

So Minton has formed a committee, led by Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Wine and including judges, court clerks, prosecutors and a representative from the Department of Public Advocacy, to review how the state retains, destroys and archives court records. * * *

The handling of court records by the Administrative Office of the Courts emerged as a hot topic two years ago after the disclosure that it had destroyed misdemeanor and traffic records in Jefferson County that were at least 5 years old.

Prosecutors and probation officers complained the purge made it more difficult to prove an offender's past misconduct. And job applicants have said they are unable to prove that old charges were dropped. They are instead given a sheet of paper to show prospective employers that says misdemeanor cases and traffic charges and convictions before November 2001 have been destroyed.

A report from a panel appointed by former Chief Justice Joseph Lambert in February 2007 blasted the Administrative Office of the Courts for "indifference, inexperience, intransigence and ineptness."

The panel condemned those officials for ignoring the importance of the records and for not realizing they could be stored cheaply in electronic formats.

Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel called the situation in Jefferson County an ongoing "nightmare" last week and said the committee should quickly look to move away from its paper-driven system.

"With the technology they have today, they can store this stuff on the head of a pin," he said.

Wine, who also headed the panel appointed by Lambert, agreed that technology is the most obvious answer.

"We need to move the storage issue into the 21st century," he said, adding that the committee will explore the cost of scanning paper files onto disk and move toward keeping the records online.

Wine said the committee will also look at destroying records that "have little or no value," such as old traffic tickets.

"There's not a lot of need for us to keep a speeding ticket," he said.

But both Wine and Minton stressed that all records needed to effectively prosecute people and criminal records that citizens are allowed to have expunged will be available.

"We intend to move forward with technology and at the same time preserve the records we need to preserve," said Minton, who became chief justice in June.

The other issue is the unknown cost to move from hard copy to disk, officials said. That's a concern, given the limited funds available across the state.

But right now, the state is paying more than $150,000 a year in storage costs at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort.

The initial complaint in 2006 was that "burly men" from the state destroyed microfilm and microfiche records, and purged electronic records. The issue, at least as initially reported by the LCJ, was never with paper records.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 1, 2008 08:01 AM
Posted to Courts in general