Matter of Prisoners' Legal Servs. of N.Y. v. New York State Dept. of Correctional Servs

In Matter of Prisoners' Legal Servs. of N.Y. v. New York State Dept. of Correctional Servs. (73 NY2d 26 [1988]) the petitioner, a legal services group representing incarcerated individuals, requested access to certain inmates' grievances and agency decisions pertaining to a certain corrections officer at the Fishkill Correctional Facility after receiving numerous complaints from prisoners about her conduct. The Court ultimately denied petitioner's request based on the risk of harassment and embarrassment to the subject officer, and found that such documents, pertaining to misconduct or rules violations, were the sort of records which the legislature intended to keep confidential. (Id. at 31.)