Four prisons install legal research computers for inmates
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
Four Hawai'i prisons have installed legal research computers in their libraries as part of a technology upgrade to increase inmates' access to legal documents while reducing staff time spent researching legal texts.
With the installation of the systems, prison libraries can eliminate the use of large, hardbound legal textbooks that take up space and have to be updated annually. With the computers, all information is online and available for the inmates to search at their discretion.
"We thought we'd start out small and see how the program works and if it is effective," said Miles Murakami, the state Corrections Program Services administrator.
Peter MacDonald, warden of the Kulani Correctional Facility in Hilo said the system is in its infancy and that his staff is still working some of the bugs out. He said that the computers are facilitating inmates' efforts to educate themselves about the legal cases they face.
"We are a minimum-security facility, and we're program-intense," MacDonald said. "Inmates have more freedom to go to the law library and study their cases. The whole environment is conducive to inmates looking up their cases and studying the law."
The computers were installed in November at the Kulani Correctional Facility in Hilo, the Kaua'i Community Correctional Facility, the Hawai'i Community Correctional Facility in Hilo, and the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua on O'ahu.
Facilities that use the database say the service from LexisNexis enables prisons to provide required access to legal information and do away with law books, which are more expensive, quickly outdated and easily damaged.
LexisNexis, based in Dayton, Ohio, has installed computer kiosks resistant to damage in four prisons and jails in Hawai'i and five in California. The kiosk consists of a touch-screen computer monitor covered in shatterproof glass inside a steel box bolted to a wall.
Prisons had to be assured that the kiosks, manufactured by Touch Sonic Technologies in Santa Rosa, Calif., would not pose a danger of broken glass that could be used as a weapon.
Touch Sonic Executives and prison officials in California tested the computers by hitting them with crowbars. None of the kiosks shattered, prison and company officials said.
In addition to being resistant to damage, the kiosks eliminate the time-consuming process of inserting printed updates into law books.
Inmates navigate the database by touching different parts of the monitor screen, which includes a keypad. The Internet-based public records database provides access to more than 4.6 billion documents from more than 30,000 news, business and legal information sources.
The service for the four Hawai'i prisons costs about $5,000 per unit, or about $20,000 a year. The systems cost about as much as the hard copy texts do, but Murakami said the savings come in the conservation of staff time.
"Also, these data bases are updated quarterly, rather than annually," Murakami said.
The service for the five California correctional facilities costs $94,400 a year, which is less expensive than purchasing law books and other legal materials. Money inmates spend at prison commissaries for candy bars and other items is used to pay for the kiosks.
Touch Sonic approached LexisNexis about offering the service to inmates, and the two companies began selling the idea to prisons. The first kiosk was installed at a prison in Hawai'i in November.
"The prisoners who have tried the kiosk use it quite frequently, and most became experts in just a few minutes of use," said Harry Fuchigami, librarian at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua. "I use the system myself because it's much easier to look up statutes using the touch screen than it is with our books."
Charles Carbone, a lawyer with California Prison Focus, which advocates for prisoners' human rights, said the kiosks are a step in the right direction for ensuring access to quality legal materials. Since the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court has mandated that inmates have access to legal information.
"It would probably address one of the problems plaguing of prison law libraries — they are understaffed and undershelved," he said.
LexisNexis is negotiating with prisons and jails in five other states to install the kiosks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
