Jose L. Negron v. Department of Correction - Legal Division (SPR 20190930)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords May 23, 2019 SPR19/930 Kate Silvia Records Access Officer Department of Correction 50 Maple Street, Suite 3 Milford, MA 01757 Dear Ms. Silvia: I have received the petition of Jose Negron appealing the response of the Department of Correction (Department) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1O A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Mr. Negron requested "fiscal years from 2013-2019 Food Expenditures from MCI Shirley, MCI Norfolk, MCI Concord, OCCC Mediums and Bridgewater complex including NCCI-Gardner Medium and Souza Baranowski corr ctr. Maximum facility." The Department responded to his request with records responsive to his request. Additional responsive records The duty to comply with requests for records extends to those records that exist and are in the possession, custody, or control of the custodian of records at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(a)(ii) (written response must "identify any public records or categories of public records sought that are within the possession, custody, or control of the agency"). Although the Department provided Mr. Negron with some responsive records, Mr. Negron appeals on the basis that "the business record not being authentic, missing information or withheld without any reason provided by the Department of Correction/A gent Director Communicator." Based on Mr. Negron's petition for appeal, it is unclear whether the Department possesses additional responsive records; specifically the Department must confirm whether additional records exist in light of Mr. Negron's appeal. Order Accordingly, the Department is ordered to provide Mr. Negron with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre• pre@sec.state.ma.us

Kate Silvia SPR19/0930 Page2 May 23, 2019 office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma. us. Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Jose Negron