LEXISNEXIS® CHARGES, AND IDOC PAYS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR IDAHO INMATE ACCESS TO DATABASE, YET INMATES HAVE NO ACCESS
On December 4, 2020, the IDOC, by and through the Idaho Division of Purchasing, contracted with LexisNexis® for "Access to a legal database of law and public record." In providing a justification for circumventing a competitive bidding process, the IDOC wrote, "The IDOC is required to provide access to legal resources and it is time prohibitive to conduct a competitive solicitation." The contract expires November 30, 2023.
The IDOC had for decades provided prisoners with access to (basic) books published by Westlaw® (considered an industry leader in legal publications) until the department contracted with LexisNexis to provide similar, though much less annotated and useful reference books at a lesser cost. LexisNexis books were not well received by the inmate population, and were not updated (nor supplements made available) until several months - or in some cases, more than a year - after the books should have been updated. Whether these delays were caused by LexisNexis or IDOC staff/contractors is unknown.
The contract between the IDOC and LexisNexis provides that there will be 7,000 terminals (licenses) for inmate use to access the (information-limited) database. Separately, the contract provides for 1 staff license for the LexisNexis "National Primary Plus, Federal Criminal Practice and Procedures - Analytical" services, and Shepard's (Research) services. The number of inmate licenses includes the ability of each IDOC prisoner to access the database through inmate-accessible kiosks and through inmate-owned tablets. The single staff license is assigned (at the time of the signing of the contract) to IDOC Chief of Staff Christine Starr.*
Because of the signed contract with LexisNexis which is to provide electronic data access, the IDOC has not ordered updates or supplements to any law books for 2021, despite inmate access to the database being severely restricted and several features/data required to be present not available. Many IDOC prisoners have been locked in cells and other areas where kiosks are not available (or available only a few minutes per day) due to COVID restrictions, quarantine or other issues. One of the factors in entering into the contract was to enable inmates to access the database even in their cells by using their personally owned tablets. Problem is - the database simply does not work - at all - on the tablets.
Access (though spotty and incomplete) to the LexisNexis database was available to inmates via tablets through January, 2020 but was completely discontinued in February, 2020 due to "technical problems" with JPay. This effectively denied thousands of prisoners across the State of Idaho constructive access to the courts - even in the midst of continuing actions and litigation in the courts. The limited number of books available are, as mentioned, out of date, and must be quarantined after each use. This means it might be weeks between the time an inmate orders a book from the prison "resource center" and the time he receives it. While kiosk access to the (still incomplete) database is available, the kiosk usually is not, as the number of inmates needing to use the kiosk in a limited time, and time limitations on the kiosk itself (30 minutes per session) precludes any substantive research.
Even though prisoners are not getting full access to resources guaranteed by the contract (or in the case of tablets, ANY access) the State of Idaho continues to pay the full annual $37,200 licensing bill. However, because the single Staff license is being unlawfully used by staff paralegals (and others) at every IDOC facility to access the database,** maybe it's a wash between IDOC and LexisNexis.
After all, it's just taxpayer money.
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* Why the IDOC Chief of Staff would need access to the LexisNexis® database is unknown as the IDOC is represented in all legal matters by the Office of the [IDOC] Attorney General.
** It is equally unclear why institutional paralegal staff would need access to the LexisNexis® database in performance of their duties as they are precluded from printing cases, researching case law or providing any type of legal assistance to inmates.