The Right to Research Act

A BILL

To ensure that incarcerated individuals have free, current and confidential access to legal research and drafting assistance, including artificial intelligence tools, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Right to Research Act”.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

1. In Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817 (1977), the Supreme Court held that the constitutional right of access to the courts requires prison authorities to assist incarcerated people in preparing and filing meaningful legal papers by providing adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law.
2. In Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343 (1996), the Supreme Court held that an incarcerated person claiming a denial of that right must show actual injury to a legal claim.
3. There is no federal constitutional right to counsel in State post-conviction proceedings. Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551 (1987).
4. A study of habeas corpus cases filed by State prisoners in the United States district courts, funded by the National Institute of Justice and published in 2007, found that the petitioner had no lawyer in 92.3 percent of non-capital cases.
5. Federal law sets a one-year limitation period for most applications for a writ of habeas corpus by State prisoners. 28 U.S.C. 2244(d). A person who cannot research the law may lose a claim to a deadline she did not know existed.
6. Many correctional facilities provide legal research only through computer kiosks or tablets running software designed for trained legal professionals, often with limited hours, limited training and no one to answer questions.
7. Legal research and drafting tools that use artificial intelligence can explain the law in plain language, identify deadlines and help prepare court filings. The Department of Justice has requested information about such tools for its own attorneys.
8. Incarcerated people who pursue their own cases without a lawyer should have access to legal research and drafting tools that are current, accurate, understandable and confidential.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

1. Covered facility. The term “covered facility” means—
   1. a correctional facility operated by or under contract with the Bureau of Prisons; and
   2. a prison operated by or under contract with a State.
2. Incarcerated individual. The term “incarcerated individual” means an individual confined in a covered facility.
3. Legal research assistant. The term “legal research assistant” means software, including software that uses artificial intelligence, that—
   1. provides access to current Federal and State case law, statutes, court rules and court forms;
   2. answers legal questions in plain language; and
   3. helps the user prepare legal documents, including petitions, motions, briefs and letters.
4. Legal materials. The term “legal materials” means any question entered into, research performed through, or document drafted, saved or printed with a legal research assistant by an incarcerated individual.
5. Provider. The term “provider” means any person that supplies a legal research assistant, or the devices or network used to reach it, to a covered facility.
6. State. The term “State” means each of the several States, the District of Columbia and each territory of the United States.

SEC. 4. ACCESS REQUIRED.

(a) Federal facilities. Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall provide each incarcerated individual in a covered facility operated by or under contract with the Bureau of Prisons access to a legal research assistant that meets the standards in section 5.

(b) State facilities. Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, each State shall provide the same access in each covered facility operated by or under contract with that State.

(c) No cost. Access under this Act shall be provided at no cost to the incarcerated individual or her family. Time spent using a legal research assistant shall not be deducted from, or charged against, any paid tablet, kiosk, messaging or entertainment time.

SEC. 5. STANDARDS FOR LEGAL RESEARCH ASSISTANTS.

A legal research assistant provided under this Act shall—

1. Current law. include the case law, statutes, court rules and official court forms of the United States and of the State in which the covered facility is located, and of any State in which the incarcerated individual was convicted, updated not less than once each week;
2. Plain language. explain legal terms and procedures in plain language, in English and Spanish, and in other languages the Attorney General determines are commonly spoken by incarcerated individuals;
3. Deadlines. identify filing deadlines that may apply to the user’s case, display a clear warning when a deadline may be near or may have passed, and tell the user to confirm every deadline with the court;
4. Drafting. help the user draft, format, save and print petitions, motions, briefs, letters and other court documents, including on official court forms;
5. Verified citations. link each case, statute, rule or form it cites to the full text of that source, and clearly mark any citation it cannot verify;
6. Accessibility. be usable by individuals with low literacy and by individuals with disabilities, as required by section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794) and title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12131 et seq.); and
7. Clear limits. state plainly, each time it is opened, that it is not a lawyer and does not provide legal representation.

SEC. 6. HOURS, EQUIPMENT AND PRINTING.

(a) Minimum access. Each covered facility shall provide each incarcerated individual not less than 10 hours of access to a legal research assistant each week.

(b) Court deadlines. An incarcerated individual who shows that she has a court deadline within the next 30 days shall receive not less than 20 hours of access each week until the deadline passes.

(c) Restrictive housing and lockdowns. Access under this section shall continue, through a secure device or another reasonable means, when an incarcerated individual is in restrictive housing or when a facility is on lockdown, except for the period during which access would create an immediate threat to safety.

(d) Printing and saving. Each covered facility shall allow an incarcerated individual to save her legal materials and to print or receive paper copies of them, and of any court form, at no cost.

(e) Transfers and release. When an incarcerated individual is transferred or released, the covered facility shall give her a copy of her saved legal materials.

SEC. 7. CONFIDENTIALITY.

(a) Protected materials. Legal materials shall be treated as confidential legal correspondence and shall not be subject to compelled disclosure in any proceeding, except as provided in subsection (b). No officer, employee or contractor of a covered facility, and no provider, may read, review, copy, disclose or monitor the content of legal materials, except as provided in subsection (c).

(b) No use against the user. Legal materials, and any information derived from them, may not be used in any criminal, civil or administrative proceeding against the incarcerated individual, or as the basis for any disciplinary action, classification decision or parole decision, except that a court may, on motion and after review in chambers, permit the use of material that shows an imminent threat of physical harm to a specific person.

(c) Security exception. A covered facility may review system logs that do not show the content of legal materials, to maintain the security and operation of the system.

(d) Provider limits. A provider may not sell, share or use legal materials for any purpose other than providing the service to the incarcerated individual, including to train or improve any artificial intelligence model, and shall delete legal materials at the incarcerated individual’s request, and in any case not later than 30 days after her release, unless she asks in writing that they be kept.

SEC. 8. TRAINING AND HUMAN ASSISTANCE.

(a) Training. Each covered facility shall offer every incarcerated individual training in how to use the legal research assistant, including written instructions in plain language, within 30 days after she arrives at the facility and at least once every 3 months after that.

(b) A person to ask. Each covered facility shall make available, during regular hours, at least one staff member, law clerk or trained incarcerated legal assistant who can answer questions about using the legal research assistant and the law library.

(c) Existing access preserved. Nothing in this Act permits a covered facility to reduce or eliminate a law library, printed legal materials, legal assistance programs or any other means of access to the courts that it provides on the date of enactment of this Act.

SEC. 9. STATE IMPLEMENTATION.

(a) Grants. The Attorney General may make grants to States to carry out this Act, including to purchase legal research assistants and devices, expand network access in covered facilities, and provide training.

(b) Compliance. Beginning with the first fiscal year that begins 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, a State whose Governor does not certify to the Attorney General that it is in compliance with sections 4 through 8 shall receive 5 percent less than the amount it would otherwise receive for that fiscal year under subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 et seq.), unless the State certifies that it will use at least that amount to come into compliance.

SEC. 10. PROCUREMENT STANDARDS.

(a) Accuracy testing. Before a covered facility adopts a legal research assistant, and each year after that, an independent evaluator shall test the assistant for accuracy of its legal information, citations and deadlines, against a standard the Attorney General sets by rule. The results shall be made public. An assistant that fails the standard may not be used until it passes a new test.

(b) No commissions. No covered facility, State or agency may receive a commission, rebate or other payment from a provider in connection with a legal research assistant.

(c) Uptime. A provider shall keep the legal research assistant available not less than 98 percent of scheduled access hours each month, and shall report every outage longer than 24 hours to the covered facility, which shall make those reports public.

SEC. 11. REPORTS.

Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and every year after that, the Attorney General shall submit to the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and publish online, a report that includes, for each covered facility—

1. the average weekly hours of access provided;
2. the number, length and cause of outages;
3. the results of the accuracy testing required by section 10(a);
4. the number of complaints about access or confidentiality and how each was resolved; and
5. the number of incarcerated individuals trained under section 8.

SEC. 12. ENFORCEMENT.

(a) Attorney General. The Attorney General may bring a civil action for declaratory or injunctive relief to enforce this Act.

(b) Private action. An incarcerated individual whose rights under this Act are violated may bring a civil action in an appropriate district court of the United States for declaratory and injunctive relief, and the court may award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to a prevailing plaintiff.

(c) Grievances. A covered facility shall decide a grievance about access under this Act within 7 days after it is filed. If the facility does not decide the grievance within that time, administrative remedies shall be deemed exhausted for purposes of section 7(a) of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (42 U.S.C. 1997e(a)).

(d) Fees. Section 7(d) of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (42 U.S.C. 1997e(d)) shall not apply to fees awarded under this section.

SEC. 13. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.

(a) Right to counsel. Nothing in this Act limits any right to counsel, or any obligation to provide counsel, under the Constitution or any other law.

(b) Access to the courts. Providing a legal research assistant under this Act does not, by itself, satisfy the obligations of a covered facility under the Constitution to provide meaningful access to the courts.

(c) Not the practice of law. Use of a legal research assistant by an incarcerated individual to research the law or prepare her own filings shall not be treated as the unauthorized practice of law by that individual.

(d) Filing deadlines. A period during which a legal research assistant required by this Act is unavailable to an incarcerated individual, or during which it gave her an incorrect filing deadline, shall be treated as an impediment to filing created by governmental action for purposes of sections 2244(d)(1)(B) and 2255(f)(2) of title 28, United States Code.

SEC. 14. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.

SEC. 15. EFFECTIVE DATE.

Except as otherwise provided, this Act shall take effect on the date of enactment.

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