Last week, Emancipate NC filed a Public Records Act lawsuit against the Durham County Sheriff’s Office to fight for release of the Jail policy manual. After a records request for the policy manual governing the Jail, the Sheriff’s Office provided only heavily redacted documents. Emancipate NC is represented in this litigation by the UNC Law Civil Clinic, with law students John Schengber and Nikolai Wise working under the supervision of Elizabeth Simpson. Public records are the property of the people!
The lawsuit reads:
Although the Jail claims that the redactions are justified under the “sensitive public security” exemption of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1.7, Plaintiff takes issue with DCSO’s liberal use of what the North Carolina General Assembly intended to be a narrow carve-out from public’s right of access. Plaintiff disputes, for example, that policies as benign as the duration of detainees’ lunch and dinner times are justifiably deemed “sensitive public security” information. Further, Plaintiff contends that DCSO flouts the narrow exemptions of the Act when it redacts policies in a free-wheeling manner—redacting not only the substance of a record but also its title and headings—so that the public is effectively prevented from determining whether the use of the exemption was warranted in the first place.
The cloak that the Jail throws upon its policies wrongfully immunizes the Sheriff’s Office from the public eye and a key tool of the people’s self-governance. Plaintiff requests that this Court intervene to compel Defendant to disclose its public records, or, alternatively, provide substantive and specific justification of why its policies constitute “sensitive public security information” that warrant secrecy.
Emancipate NC continues to fight against inhumane conditions in jails and prisons. On February 8, we will join End Solitary NC, the Durham Community Safety and Wellness Task Force, St. Phillip’s Jail Ministry, and NC Community Bail Fund of Durham for a community event at Duke Memorial UMC at 5 pm. Join us to tour a full-size replica of a solitary confinement cell, learn about Durham Jail conditions, and march to the Durham County Detention Center.