Kentucky's Attorney General ruled that the Southeast State Correctional Complex in Wheelwright did not violate the state's Open Records Act when it denied an inmate's request for copies of his phone calls, according to a decision released April 24.

Inmate Larry Stambaugh requested records of phone calls he made between January and May 2021, as well as a recording of a conversation with his uncle. The medium-security facility in Floyd County denied the request, arguing the phone call records are not kept by the prison or the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Instead, the prison said Securus Technologies, the contractor providing inmate communication services, maintains those records.

Under Kentucky law, "public records" must be prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public agency. The Attorney General's office determined that Stambaugh failed to provide sufficient evidence that the Department of Corrections actually possesses the phone records in question. While the prison contractually has access to such records for investigative purposes, merely having the right to demand records is different from actually possessing them, the decision stated.

Stambaugh argued the facility must retain the records because it has issued over 120 disciplinary reports involving inmate telephone account misuse. He also claimed another inmate successfully obtained similar records through an open records request. The Attorney General rejected both arguments, noting that an agency obtaining records from a contractor in one case does not prove it obtained similar records in an unrelated case.

Securus Technologies provides inmate communication and entertainment services for the Department of Corrections under a contract. The company charges callers per-minute rates and pays a portion of its revenue back to the state in commissions.

Stambaugh has 30 days from the decision to appeal to Floyd County Circuit Court, according to the Attorney General's office. The office noted it did not address whether the recorded phone calls could be exempt from disclosure as "purely personal" communications under state law.