Transcript of Grievance: "Administrative Directive DC-ADM 804 at VI,D,l,f1 requires that photocopies of certain documents must be submitted when I appeal to the office of Inmate Grievance Appeals.2 While the provision is a clever bureaucratic contrivance, it also improperly acts to forstall exhaustion of administrative remedies prior to suit.3 By simply inhibiting timely4 access to photocopying, I am effectively precluded from going on to court. "Only 'legal' material may be copied in the library at SCI-Smithfield. I have a federal suit5 pending against the library staff6 for arbitrary photocopying7 policies8 which prohibit copying of such things as exhibits, evidence and news stories. The suit includes allegations that the conduct of one of the library clerks9 is so provocative that the library is dangerous. In effect, I cannot have photocopies made within the prison. "On at least three occasions, I've appealed to Central Office10 explaining that I cannot include photocopies of the records, that I am simply preserving my filing date and that the photocopies will be sent from home. My appeals have been answered with an inane, bureaucratic computer form [letter] . The grievance scheme must be amended to admit copies of the record to be received from third parties. The SCI-Smithfield library should copy everything [which is] protected by the First Amendment11 and it should be administered by staff which is civil enough not to provoke confrontations. "(B)12 On [date] I wrote to Grievance Coordinator, Sharon Burks13 asking how I should present this grievance against Central Office and/or against the Ooffice of Inmate Grievance Appeals." Footnotes 1 Administrative Directive 804 is a lengthy (14 page) and involved bureaucratic document. It is far beyond the intellectual abilities and educational level of most prisoners. It's composed in legalese and intended for only one purpose: to protect prison personnel from being held accountable for their misconducts. The section in question requires that, where a prisoner has the gall to appeal to Central Office from the inevitable rejection by the prison, he or she must include photocopies of all the documents related to the grievance, generally at least four documents. 2 Prisoners' grievance appeals must be mailed to [get a load of this pompous bureaucratic title] The Secretary's Office of Inmate Grievances and Appeals, Department of Corrections, 2520 Lisburn Road, Box 598, Camp Hill, PA 17001-0598. The phone number is not published, but it's 717-975-4998 or 717-975-4864. (See "Key Staff" for all the phone numbers.) At present, the office is administered by Thomas L. James who calls himself the Chief Grievance Coordinator. A woman named Tshanna [sic] C. Kyler is called his Administrative Assistant. "DOC" would rather pay $100,000 in bureaucrats' salaries than correct a problem. 3 Under both state and federal law, a prisoner must "exhaust administrative remedies" before he can go into court. That means that he must try in all ways, no matter how hopeless, costly, silly or time consuming to get the prison system to correct the problem. It's pure hypocrisy! The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is in the business of creating problems, not solving them. It wouldn't know where to start. It is the enemy of our society. 4 A prisoner must file his appeal within five days of being rejected by the prison. That period is reduced by the fact that it takes a couple of days for the prisoner to be notified of the rejection, several more days to schedule access to the photocopier and several more days for the mail to be processed. 5 The suit alleges many, many serious defects at SCI- Smithfield in a "conditions of confinement" suit. 6 The title of "librarian" is properly used only by persons with a minimum of a masters degree in library science. At SCI-Smithfield there is no one with such educational qualifications, but it hardly matters, the library is little more than a hole-in-the-wall containing a very few books. It is supervised by one Renee Lupert who uses the title of "librarian." Jeannette Stennett is a clerk in the library. 7 Prison photocopying is done on machines which have been purchased by the prisoners with their own money from a fund called the Inmate General Welfare Fund. Prisoners pay at least 10 cents for each copy. The actual cost of the copies is less than 3 cents, so photocopying is a profit making business. The copies are made by other prisoners. The photocopies of a court appeal brief might cost the prisoner ten or twelve months prison wages, $150 or more. 8 The Department of Corrections has a policy which allows photocopying of just about anything which isn't inconsistent with prison life. This policy is pretty much consistent with the law, see, Rhodes v Robinson, 612 F2d 766 (3rd Cir 1979). At SCI-Smithfield, however, the law is ignored. A local policy limits copying to "legal" papers and the library staff reads the papers to decide if they think that they're "legal" enough. 9 Jeannette Stennett. 10 The Central Office for the prisons is in Camp Hill, adjacent to the "Camp Hell" prison. 11 Of course, the First Amendment guarantees everyone, even prisoners freedom of speech and of the press. Guards detest it! 12 Section (B) of the grievance form requires the prisoner to recite what pointless efforts he made to solve the problem before filing the grievance. 13 Sharon Burks is the so-called Grievance Coordinator at SCI-Smithfield. As with most prisons, she's also the Superintendent's Administrative Assistant and effectively, the deputy superintendent. She gets the grievance, give it to the person against whom the grievance is made. That person answers the grievance. Of course, he always finds that he did everything exactly right.