Francis v. Department of Corrections

¶1 Shawn D. Francis, an inmate in the custody of the Washington State Department of Corrections (Department), sued the Department after he discovered that it had failed to provide documents responsive to a Public Records Act (PRA)1 request he had made while incarcerated at the McNeil Island Corrections Center. The *48superior court granted summary judgment in Francis’s favor on the issue of liability after the Department admitted that it had failed to provide documents responsive to the request. The court awarded Francis a monetary penalty near the low end of the statutory range, based on a…