Sheriff won’t release Gardner e-mails

A few weeks back, I put in a request for all e-mails sent to John Gardner, the now-confessed killer of Amber Dubois and Chelsea King, while in San Diego County Jail. See, the San Diego County Sheriff’s office provides an email-an-inmate service through its web site. Since the site tells users they have “no expectation of privacy,” we thought that the e-mails might count as public records. Here’s how the Sheriff’s office explains the system in a letter rejecting my request:

The Sheriff’s Department implemented the e-mail system as a way of reducing the amount of postal correspondence to inmates. This is an important goal because e-mail is 1) Faster to sort and process, and 2)involves no potential for the importation of drugs. The more that people use e-mail rather than postal mail to correspond with inmates, the more quickly and efficiently the mail can be processed, and the less likelihood of dangerous drugs coming into the jail facilities through the mail system.

The sheriff’s counsel determined the e-mails are not public records. Here’s why:

A government agency may withhold disclosure of public records if the public interested served by not disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure… Here, there is no government action to be “illuminated.” You are seeking correspondence from individual members of the public to a County jail inmate. Moreover, the public interest served by nondisclosure of the emails is significant.

Well, I’m not 100 percent convinced on that one. What if, for example, through the e-mails we discovered that underage girls were corresponding with him or he was receiving death threats or someone else had confessed to the crime? Surely that information would be of great public interest, especially if the Sheriff’s office didn’t act on the tips. They go on:

But if the Sheriff’s Department were to disclose such e-mails to the media or anyone who made a Public Records Act request, the effect would be to discourage rather than encourage use of the email system. The Sheriff’s Department does not wish to discourage the use of a system that is proving to be a benefit in terms of jail efficiency and security.

To tell you the truth,  I would’ve been a little disappointed had the Sheriff’s office handed over the e-mails because, yes, it would’ve had a chilling effect. It isn’t just about security but encouraging family members to remain engaged in their loved ones lives behind bars.

I just wish they’d made that argument.

Here’s the pdf of their records request rejection.