Prisoner Denied Access to Medical Records

By: Trina Joshi

A prisoner’s appeal to obtain his prison documents has been turned down by a federal appeals court in Virginia.

Joseph Giarratano, who suffers from Hepatitis C, wanted to ensure if the prison’s treatment system was efficient by using the state’s open-secret record. However, the court failed to find any convincing argument from him that could say the state lacked rationale for keeping the prisoners from such details.

My question: - Should inmates be denied access to public records under the First Amendment, especially when the information directly concerns the person.