FOIL-AO-16063

 

July 12, 2006

The staff of the Committee on Open Government is authorized to issue advisory opinions. The ensuing staff advisory opinion is based solely upon the information presented in your correspondence.

Dear

We have received your correspondence concerning your efforts in obtaining records from the Department of Correctional Services and the Division of Parole. Based on a review of the materials, I offer the following comments.

First, I note that the federal Freedom of Information Act applies only to federal agencies and has no application when requests are made to the state agencies to which you referred. Those agencies are subject to the New York Freedom of Information Law.

Second, the Freedom of Information Law pertains to existing records, and §89(3) states in part that an agency is not required to create a record in response to a request. Therefore, insofar as the information that you requested does not exist in the form of a record, the Freedom of Information Law would not be applicable.

Lastly, since you referred to a request for your pre-sentence report, I believe that access to it is governed by a statute other than the Freedom of Information Law. Although the Freedom of Information Law provides broad rights of access to records, the first ground for denial, §87(2)(a), states that an agency may withhold records or portions thereof that "...are specifically exempted from disclosure by state or federal statute..." Relevant under the circumstances is §390.50 of the Criminal Procedure Law, which, in my opinion represents the exclusive procedure concerning access to pre-sentence reports.

Section 390.50(1) of the Criminal Procedure Law states that:

"Any pre-sentence report or memorandum submitted to the court pursuant to this article and any medical, psychiatric or social agency report or other information gathered for the court by a probation department, or submitted directly to the court, in connection with the question of sentence is confidential and may not be made available to any person or public or private agency except where specifically required or permitted by statute or upon specific authorization of the court. For purposes of this section, any report, memorandum or other information forwarded to a probation department within this state is governed by the same rules of confidentiality. Any person, public or private agency receiving such material must retain it under the same conditions of confidentiality as apply to the probation department that made it available."

In addition, subdivision (2) of §390.50 states in part that: "The pre-sentence report shall be made available by the court for examination and copying in connection with any appeal in the case..."

Most recently, it was confirmed that "Criminal Procedure Law Sec. 390.50 is the exclusive procedure concerning access to such reports, as they are confidential and specifically exempted from disclosure pursuant to State and Federal Freedom of Information Laws. Petitioner...must make a proper application to the Court which sentenced him" (Matter of Roper v. Carway, Supreme Court, New York County, NYLJ, August 17, 2004).

In view of the foregoing, I believe that a pre-sentence report may be made available only upon the order of a court, and only under the circumstances described in §390.50 of the Criminal Procedure Law. It is suggested that you review that statute.

I hope that I have been of assistance.

Sincerely,

 

Robert J. Freeman
Executive Director

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