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Legal Research Kiosks for Inmates Help States Save Money, Comply with Law
LexisNexis and Touch Sonic Technologies® Install Terminals in Hawaii and California
DAYTON, OH, March 04, 2004 - LexisNexis U.S. and Touch Sonic Technologies® today launched a new legal information kiosk that will change the way prisons comply with court mandates requiring inmate access to the law. The two companies have already installed the new wall-mounted kiosks with shatterproof touch screens in corrections facilities in Hawaii and Riverside County, California.
The kiosks, called the TSTLL, were developed specifically for prisons by Touch Sonic Technologies and feature legal research from LexisNexis, a leading provider of legal, news and business information services.
Most prison libraries offer legal books, which can be damaged or lost, and are quickly outdated. With these kiosks, corrections departments are expected to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on costly law books, while offering comprehensive and current legal information to inmates. States also stand to save money with fewer prisoner complaints about lack of access to legal research, which comprise substantial numbers of the inmate lawsuits filed. In addition to ensuring access to current legal information, the TSTLL unit allows the correctional facility to track the usage of each inmate through a login, providing a record that can be used to defend allegations of non-access.
"We designed the TSTLL to work in a corrections environment where safety is a big concern, so we built in not only safety features like a shatterproof screen but flexibility to locate the kiosk within the cellblock," said Jack Long, vice president of Touch Sonic Technologies. "We also know that inmates are dealing with time constraints and in many cases limited knowledge of the law, and we developed a system that offers options to both new and advanced users."
Touch Sonic and LexisNexis have successfully installed the TSTLL units in four correctional centers in Hawaii (Hawaii Community Correctional Center, Kauai Community Correctional Center, Women’s Community Correctional Center, Kulani Correctional Facility) and five facilities in Riverside County, California (Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, Blythe Jail, Indio Jail, Robert Presley Detention Centers, Southwest Detention Center).
"The prisoners who have tried the kiosk use it quite frequently and most became experts in just a few minutes of use," said Harry Fuchigami, librarian at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua, Hawaii. "I use the system myself because it’s much easier to look up statutes using the touch screen than it is with our books."
In a survey of prisoners in Hawaii, 74 percent ranked the kiosk easier to use than law books; 71 percent said the speed of search was faster. All of the librarians surveyed in Hawaii had a positive impression after their first use of the kiosk.
"Until now, prisons had no option but to spend huge sums purchasing law books, which involve administrative costs, are subject to vandalism, and become quickly outdated. Now they can meet the legal research needs of inmates in a cost-effective way," said Bill Carter, vice president and managing director of LexisNexis. "We have seen great success with our installments in California and Hawaii and plan to roll out this combination of hardware and legal information to corrections facilities nationwide."
The inmates in Hawaii and California have access to the same high-quality LexisNexis legal research used by the top law firms in the country. This includes access to state codes, court cases on the state and federal level, and resources like law dictionaries and guides to criminal defense. The research provided eliminates the need to offer Internet access from the kiosk.
About LexisNexis
LexisNexis™ (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc [NYSE: ENL; NYSE: RUK] (www.reedelsevier.com), the company does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based research service, LexisNexis, the company includes some of the world’s most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, Les Editions du Juris-Classeur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.
In the United States, LexisNexis™ Total Research System (www.lexisnexis.com) offers an extensive range of online and print legal and regulatory information products, tools, customized Web applications and critical filing services that help legal professionals reach confident decisions and comply with the law.
About Touch Sonic Technologies
Touch Sonic Technologies, Inc.® (TST) is a Sonoma County, California based computer and software design company.
TST (www.touchsonic.com) has focused on touch screen kiosk applications for law enforcement and corrections industries. TST products are designed to move prisons and jails from print law libraries to electronic legal data delivery systems that are so user friendly that no computer operating experience is required.
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