Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, 2015

Brown, Robert Ford III

Brown, Robert Ford III
Court of Civil Appeals of Texas · Decided April 23, 2015

Brown, Robert Ford III

Opinion

Abel 4cos4 c~ MOTION DENIED DATE: U-1UMC BY: (>0 CCHWTOFCRIMINAL APPEALS APR 23 2015 AtettoStt.Gterk

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J/ie^r-ely^ i TEXAS DEPARTMENT NUMBER: ATC-050 (Rev. 4) OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE DATE: August 1,2005

ACCESS TO COURTS, ' PAGE: lof2 COUNSEL & PUBLIC OFFICIALS SUPERSEDES: AM-03.81.050 (Rev. 3) January 1, 1992

SUBJECT: WHEN AND WHERE LEGAL WORK MAY BE PERFORMED PURPOSE: i

To establish when and where legal work may be conducted and provide guidance for an offender who requests assistance from another offender.

PROCEDURES:

I. Location and Times

A. Offenders may conduct legal work during their off work hours either in ,/"" their housing area, in the unit's library, or in other locations specified by the unit Warden.

B. Times for law library usage must be specified on the law library schedule, and such times must take into consideration all offenders' work hours and scheduled activities.

1. "Scheduled Activities" are programmatic! activities and shall consist of both academic and vocational classes at the elementary and secondary school levels (Grades 1-12).

2. Offender college hour(s), craft shop, recreation, gymnasium, church, counseling, etc., are not programmatic activities.

II. Offenders Assisting Other Offenders on Legal Matters: A. A "Same-Session Visit" is a visit that each of two (2) general population offenders must request, via an 1-60 to the unit Access to Courts Supervisor requesting to be scheduled to attend a regularly scheduled law library session for the sole purpose of discussing or preparing legal issues.

Priority in scheduling these same session visits shall be given to offenders articulating an urgent need (e.g. court deadline, co-parties, etc.) for the visit.

(jtfwf A ATC-050 (Rev. 4) Page 2 of 2 B. The rules permit unit law libraries to enforce a "no talking without permission" rule. The purpose of this rule is to prohibit some offenders from disrupting others in the law library. Unless the permission of the law library staffis obtained, only two offenders at a time may work together.

Under normal circumstances, there is no provision to deny such legal discussions, and the law library staff is to facilitate such legal work.

However, the "no talking without permission" rule can be selectively enforced (i.e., used when needed for certain offenders), and these offender's discussions may be limited to 15-20 minutes. Whereas, other offenders may be permitted to quietly converse regarding legal matters the entire law library session.

C. Due to different work assignments or scheduled activities, two (2) offenders may be precluded from attending a regularly scheduled law library session at the same time. In such a case, the visit shall be scheduled like that of segregated offenders (ATC-055). One of the offenders must submit a request to the unit Access to Courts Supervisor requesting an offender/offender legal visit. The unit Access to Courts Supervisor shall arrange a time in which the two offenders may be assigned to the law library to work together. Each such legal visit requires a request from one of the offenders, and during the legal visit offenders must actively engage in some form of legal work. Social visits are prohibited.

D. Under normal, routine conditions and security concerns, general population same session visits cannot be denied if the offenders engage in legal work.

E. Offenders on the same or other units may correspond about legal matters, provided that they are co-parties in a currently active legal matter or an offender is providing a relevant witness affidavit in a{currently active legal matter (BP-03.91, "Uniform Offender Correspondence Rules" and ATC- 034, "Correspondence Qualification and Supply Issuance").

F. The unit Access to Courts Supervisor shall attempt ito assist an offender with a disability that potentially impairs his ability to obtain access to courts.

G.^ The unit Access to Courts Supervisor shall assist monolingual (Spanish)' offenders through the use of unit interpreters or by providing names of bilingual offenders who may assist them. A list of monolingual/Spanish- speaking offenders on a specific unit is available on the TDCJ Mainframe INFOPAC System. r^ooKV.ons to oH^s o?cxxAf cxclW or foto^\ V^a) fc<L-ki^ *au/ Was o-v 3nWconc^eo^^Yto S^(\s \|e>0 CQn d«*rkj

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