Inmates should not have privileges or favorable treatment beyond that enjoyed by the general populace, even when filing lawsuits. Therefore, a proposal by Utah Attorney General Jan Graham for prisoners to pay a $120 filing fee is reasonable and should be approved by the 1998 Legislature.
About 95 percent of lawsuits filed by inmates are deemed frivolous and tossed out. Some of those involve such weighty matters as combs with missing teeth and ruined playing cards. Those types of actions clog the court system and drain valuable judicial resources already stretched thin.Assessing a filing fee would force prisoners to seriously weigh their actions before recklessly forging ahead. Most of them have low-paying jobs while incarcerated. Their paychecks could be garnisheed over time if they lacked sufficient savings to pay up front.
The action would not unfairly penalize those who are incarcerated, but would treat them the same as everyone else. Why should lawbreakers be granted special favors - financial or otherwise - when initiating action through a legal system they have violated?
True, they don't have the same earning capacity as those on the outside. But, through their choices, they have forfeited opportunities that accompany freedom. Those with legitimate legal complaints would be protected and would not be prohibited from filing, Graham noted. Such an assurance should alleviate fears expressed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others that inmate voices would be unfairly silenced.
A state law already is in place requiring convicts to pay a portion of filing costs. That has reduced convict suits by 30 percent. A 1996 change in the federal system required inmates to pay the full $150 lawsuit filing fee, when able.
Such standards preclude the rash of frivolous inmate lawsuits but do not prohibit those with legitimate legal complaints from presenting their case.