House Bill to curb "frivolous" prisoner lawsuits passes out of committee in Kentucky House
The House Judiciary Committee this past Thursday cleared a bill that is allegedly intended to curb frivolous lawsuits filed by inmates at Kentucky’s various prisons. The Committee approved the legislation, clearing the way for it to reach a full vote in the House of Representatives. The legislation is purportedly an attempt to keep prisoners from filing these so-called frivolous suits unless and until they have exhausted all available administrative remedies to resolve any complaints. The Bill, SB 32, has already passed through the Senate on a 38-0 vote.
At this point the bill applies only to the Kentucky Department of Corrections and it employees, a division of Kentucky’s state government. A former jailer in the Kentucky State Senate, Republican John Schickel of Union, says that private contracting companies who also run several prisons in Kentucky, such as Corrections Corporation of America, would also be protected from suit by the bill. It appears that the bill would also apply to local correctional facilities such as city and county jails.
To many, this bill would seem like a great idea. It kills two birds with one stone: it prevents more frivolous lawsuits from clogging up the courts and it doesn’t show favoritism to criminals. However, as injury attorney Brian D. Cook explains, “while the inmates of Kentucky’s jails and prisons certainly do not appear to warrant much sympathy, this bill takes away one of the most fundamental rights a person has: the right to seek justice in front of a jury of his peers. The requirement to exhaust administrative remedies does nothing more than make the jailer or warden of a facility judge, jury, and executioner. No one is saying that prisoners deserve special rights, but this takes us back to the middle ages in terms of civil rights. Prison officials will now be free to act without regard for any right these prisoners might have. Beatings, deprivation of food or medicine, denial of other basic human rights; the prisoner now has no effective way to address these grievances.” The bill does not make any distinction between violent and non-violent offenders, repeat offenders, or severity of crime. Fortunately, most inmates who are injured or killed by the negligence of a prison official can still seek remedy in federal court.
