Portis v. Evans

Hill, Presiding Justice.

Charles E. Portis is an inmate confined at the Metro Correctional Institution. He filed a petition for mandamus in Fulton Superior Court against the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Offender Rehabilitation, seeking to compel the Commissioner to provide him with the “meaningful access to the courts” required by Bounds v. Smith, 430 U. S. 817 (97 SC 1491, 52 LE2d 72) (1977). Portis alleged that he was in need of legal materials or assistance in order to prepare appeals from the denials of his petitions for habeas corpus (one in state court and one in federal…