Inmates may be able to successfully challenge the Department Of Correction’s decision to discontinue prison library subscriptions for advanced sheets of legal reporters.

The plaintiff challenged the Department Of Correction’s (DOC) decision to discontinue the prison library’s subscription for advanced sheets of legal reporters in lieu of Lexis Law Library online database, which is updated only quarterly. The plaintiff alleges DOC’s library policy to update legal materials quarterly is inadequate and hinders his efforts to pursue his legal rights because the policy effectively prevents him, and other inmates, from timely filing post-conviction relief petitions based on new decisional law under Section 9545(b)(2) of the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), 42 Pa. C.S. §9545(b)(2).

Although the DOC’s preliminary objections were granted for lack of standing because the plaintiff failed to allege he was actually harmed by DOC’s policy, the court found that the plaintiff presented an interesting legal claim regarding the adequacy of quarterly Lexis updates in connection with the timely filing of a PCRA petition based on new decisional law. The court further granted the plaintiff leave to amend his complaint, giving him the opportunity to allege an actual injury to establish standing. Accordingly, it is likely the sufficiency of the quarterly updates will soon be before the court.

Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2014