By Bob Egelko
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — Inmates who sued the state in 1966 seeking access to law books to challenge their convictions and disciplinary violations have finally dropped their case now that state law requires prisons to stock legal research material in their libraries.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco lifted an injunction last week that another judge had imposed in 1972 ordering California prisons to give inmates access to specific case books and legal information that they need to gain access to the courts.
The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation adopted rules in December that provide the same access and entitle all inmates to visit prison law libraries. Lawyers for the prisoners agreed that they no longer needed the federal suit and could ask state judges to enforce the new rules if necessary.
“Prisoners use the law libraries often, and they use them to good effect,” said attorney Alison Hardy of the nonprofit Prison Law Office, which has represented the inmates since the late 1990s.
Of the 139 San Quentin Prison inmates who filed the original suit, two are still in custody, corrections department spokesman Gordon Hinkle said.
Hardy said the U.S. Supreme Court expanded prisoners’ rights to use law libraries in 1966 but reversed course 30 years later and required inmates claiming rights violations to show that they had lost a case because they were denied access to the library.
As a result of the lawsuit, Hardy said, California inmates gained broader rights under the 1972 injunction and the state’s new rules. She said they can obtain legal material they need to go to court and challenge convictions, disciplinary actions or prison conditions.
Those rights aren’t unlimited, the lawyer said: “There’s no right to access the court to get divorced.”
Copyright 2010 San Francisco Chronicle