Open Records Request
The Open Records Law (Wisconsin Statutes 19.31-19.39) is a powerful tool at the public's disposal to hold our government accountable through securing records pertaining to governmental actions, operations, and other related processes. Each governmental entity has an open records process, and as such, it would be quite difficult to provide a comprehensive listing of all such processes here. As such, this page is meant to provide you with a brief summary and tips of how to launch an open records request using the Department of Corrections as our primary example.
To request open records of the department, you will need to access the open records web page found here. On this page, you will be required to create an account. This account will allow you to request the records you are seeking to be sent electronically (so you do not have to pay for the cost), and to use your account to make additional and subsequent requests.
The nature of what you can request, is by statute, somewhat limited, as the legislature has created an exemption for requests that endanger the safety and/or security of correctional institutions. This exemption clause allows the department to exercise its discernment, which in many instances, it will do if it determines your request is of such a nature. However; please do not let this deter you from making a request, as requiring the department to go "on-the-record" can be a powerful tool of advocacy on its own.
What follows is a small sampling of open records requests that have been made in the past. By sharing them here, we hope to provide you with a better understanding of the scope of open records, and how they can be used to facilitate the work of advocacy.
1. "Please provide me with a complete record of all DOC-wide employee work rules specific to the positions of corrections officer, corrections sergeant, and security supervisor. Moreover, please provide me with a copy of the training curriculum used in the academy for new correction officer hires. This request should be construed as the most recently updated materials."
2. "I am requesting the complete, exhaustive, and comprehensive invoices received by the Department from its contractor TextBehind, for mail services for the dates described above."
3. "Please provide the professional calendars for the following employees for the timeframe described above. As part of these professional calendars for each employee, please provide a record of all meetings, conferences, appointments, interviews, and other professional activities s/he participated in whether in-person, telephonically, or through other means (i.e. technological mediums). The calendars for the following employees are requested: John Does 1-12".
4. "Please provide a complete record of all disciplinary reports issued by every DAI institution for the timeframe described above. As part of the record, please include the sanction issued for each disciplinary report, identify whether each disciplinary report was a "minor" or a "major", and include any and all supplemental materials included in each disciplinary report."
5. "Please provide me with a complete, exhaustive, and comprehensive list of every DOC employee who was either a) promoted, b) laterally transferred, and/or c) reassigned out of their previously held position to a different position for the timeframe described above. In the response, please identify the name of the employee, the position s/he previously held, and the new position s/he was placed into. If the individual promoted and/or was reassigned/transferred multiple times, please provide the above information for every instance of promotion/transfer/reassignment."
6. "Please provide me the records concerning the names of all websites visited by the below named employees. Specifically, provide this information specific to each employee's state assigned computer work account and include any and all state computers they accessed using this state assigned work account. This request should include the information during the dates named above. John Does 1-12"
7. "Please provide me with the official security staffing matrices that exists at each of the following correctional institutions to include the number of staff required to operate the facility and the posts to which staff are assigned. New Lisbon, Redgranite, Oakhill, Waupun, Green Bay."
8. "Please provide me with a complete record of all DOC-wide employee work rules specific to the positions of corrections officer, corrections sergeant, and security supervisor. Moreover, please provide me with a copy of the training curriculum used in the academy for new correction officer hires. This request should be construed as the most recently updated materials."
When conducting open records requests, the most important thing to assure is that your request is specific, targeted, and measured. In doing so, this will help to avoid the department coming back with claims that your request is too broad or fails to make a request for records that the Department can reasonably locate.
As one of our organization's foremost priorities is in refuting many of the narratives being put forward by the department. The process of open records allows us to secure the necessary data so as to effectively and truthfully respond to such narratives.