Free Letter - District Court of Delaware - Delaware

Case 1:04-cv-00175-JJF

Document 66

Filed 05/16/2005

Page 1 of 2

M. JANE BRADY ATTORNEY GENERAL NEW CASTLE COUNTY Carvel State Building 820 N. French Street Wilmington, DE 19801 Criminal Division (302) 577-8500 Fax: (302) 577-2496 Civil Division (302) 577-8400 Fax: (302) 577-6630 TTY: (302) 577-5783 PLEASE REPLY TO:

STATE OF DELAWARE
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
KENT COUNTY 102 West Water Street Dover, DE 19901 Criminal Division (302) 739-4211 Fax: (302) 739-6727 Civil Division (302) 739-7641 Fax: (302) 739-7652 TTY: (302) 739-1545 SUSSEX COUNTY 114 E. Market Street Georgetown, DE 19947 (302) 856-5352 Fax: (302) 856-5369 TTY: (302) 856-2500

BY CM/ECF & U.S. MAIL The Hon. Kent A. Jordan United States District Court J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building 844 N. King Street Room 6325 Lockbox 10 Wilmington, DE 19801 Re:

May 16, 2005

Joseph Lawrence Curry v. Gregory Hopkins; C.A. No. 04-175-KAJ

Dear Judge Jordan, Please accept this letter as a follow-up to my letter of May 10, 2005 in relation to Mr. Curry's claim that he has been denied reasonable access to the court. Attached as Exhibit 1, please find a copy of an affidavit executed on May 12, 2005 by Michael Little, Legal Services Administrator for the Delaware Correctional Center ("DCC").1 Attached as Exhibit 2 is Section XXI of the Inmate Housing Rules for the Pre-Trial Unit (entitled "Legal Services").2 The attached policy and the information set forth in Mr. Little's affidavit specifically rebut Mr. Curry's allegations of unreasonable limitation to the Law Library and related legal services. According to documentation obtained by Mr. Little (attached as Exhibits A and B to his affidavit), Mr. Curry has had continuous access to the law library, has been provided free document copying, and has had the assistance of inmate paralegals during
The attached affidavit of Mr. Little has been sent to the author via fax. The original shall be forwarded to the Court upon receipt. 2 The Court will note that XXI(C) provides that copying services are available for a fee of $0.25 per page. While this is the written policy, the practice is not to charge inmates any fee to copy legal documents. In this matter, Mr. Curry has not been charged for the hundreds of pages of copies provided to him by the Law Library. See Affidavit of Little at ¶ 4.
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Case 1:04-cv-00175-JJF

Document 66

Filed 05/16/2005

Page 2 of 2

The Hon. Kent A. Jordan May 16, 2005 Page 2 his current period of incarceration. The Department's documentation indicates that Mr. Curry has attended the law library on nearly one hundred separate occasions and received in excess of 750 pages of free copies from the DCC Law Library. The Department of Correction's position in this matter is as follows: 1) Mr. Curry has received the benefit of legal access and services which far exceed those required by the United States and State of Delaware Constitutions and applicable statutes; 2) there is no evidence to indicate that increased security measures and/or staffing issues have impacted on Mr. Curry's legal access rights; 3) the evidence presented by the Department demonstrates that Mr. Curry has not been prevented from obtaining legal services or prevented from securing documents necessary for his case; 4) given the information relative to Mr. Curry's legal access, any allegation that he requires appointed counsel for reasons attributable to the Department of Correction should be rejected. Mr. Curry cannot demonstrate that he has suffered any unreasonable limitation upon his access to legal materials or that he has suffered any "actual injury" causally related to such alleged limitation.3 It is my hope that this information is helpful to the Court's requests. I remain available to address any additional matter relative to Mr. Curry's allegations. Respectfully submitted, /s/ Aaron R. Goldstein Aaron R. Goldstein Deputy Attorney General Enclosures CC: William W. Pepper, Esquire (Via CM/ECF) Daniel A. Griffith, Esquire (Via CM/ECF) Joseph L. Curry (Via U.S. Mail)

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See Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343 (1996); Oliver v. Fauver, 118 F.3d 175, 177 (3d Cir. 1997).