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Sheriff's Office recommending that the Board approve and authorize the Chair to sign retroactive Agreement # 299-S1511 with Legal Research Associates in the amount of $90,000 for the term September 1, 2014 through August 31, 2017.
FUNDING: Inmate Welfare Trust Fund.
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DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION
Clerk's Note: Per the Sheriff's department on June 24, 2015 the agreement number in the agenda item and on the blue routing sheet was incorrect. A clerical correction was made to the agenda item and the blue route to correct the agreement number from 229-S1511 to 299-S1511.
Sheriff's Office recommends the approval and signing of this new contract to continue providing services to Jail inmates.
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
Pursuant to Title 15, Section 1064, 1068 and 1070, and Case Law "Lewis v. Casey" and "Younger v. Gilmore", the Sheriff is required to provide legal information to assist inmates in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers by providing them with adequate assistance from persons trained in law. This service is much like the service provided by a law library and no legal counsel is being provided. The Sheriff's Office has contracted with Legal Research Associates since 2001, and this is to simply continue an ongoing service.
Prior to having this contract, the Sheriff's Office had a physical law library with law books at both jails; however, the libraries did not have cameras so there had to be staff available to supervise inmates during library visits, resulting in increased staffing costs, as well as replacement costs of law books that were destroyed by inmates.
The vendor's most recent contract, Agreement # 224-S1211, ended in December 2014. However, there wasn't sufficient funding in Agreement #224-S1211 for payment of invoices from September 2014 due to an increase in the inmates' use of services. Therefore, this new contract is retroactive to September 2014.
ALTERNATIVES
N/A
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
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