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Alaska Prison System Adds LexisNexis Legal Research Terminals to Prison Libraries
Department of Corrections to save thousands annually by reducing library costs
DAYTON, OH, November 08, 2005 - LexisNexis U.S., a leading provider of legal, news and business information services, announced today it is providing legal research to the prison libraries in all Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities. The installation of legal information terminals allows the state to comply with court mandates requiring inmate access to the law while saving approximately $200,000 per year on staffing, maintenance, security and law book subscriptions.
The Alaska DOC has installed 58 secure terminals in 12 in-state facilities (serving 3,600 prisoners) and one out-of-state contract facility (serving 800 prisoners) that inmates use to access LexisNexis® legal research via a tightly controlled network.
"One of our responsibilities to the inmates in this system is to provide access to legal research materials. Our commitment to the state is that we will meet this obligation as cost-effectively and as equitably as possible. These new terminals featuring LexisNexis legal research provide inmates with a secure channel to up-to-date legal information needed to pursue their cases while cutting significant time and money out of the system," said Commissioner Marc Antrim of the Alaska Department of Corrections.
"After evaluating various legal research services, we chose LexisNexis based on the company’s ability to provide a customized, secure interface to its online service, and its exclusive availability of the Shepard’s citations service. Our LexisNexis Sales Executive Pete Harkovitch spent a great deal of time with our team to understand a prison system’s unique requirements and to customize the solution to these needs," Antrim said.
The virtually paperless computerized approach to legal research allows the Alaska DOC to reallocate staffing for its law libraries by greatly reducing security risks related to contraband stashed in books and by eliminating the labor-intensive process of maintaining each library collection.
"The Department of Corrections sought a complete, easy to use, and secure alternative to the traditional law library collection. LexisNexis provides DOC with a simplified inmate interface to automatically updated content that includes a wide variety of analytical and reference materials," said Standards Administrator Tim Lyden of the Alaska Department of Corrections.
With innovative use of its information technology infrastructure, the Alaska DOC has created the first Internet-based prison legal research solution by connecting a secure, centralized server to LexisNexis content over the Internet. This allows the DOC to get current LexisNexis content without permitting inmates access to outside Web sites, e-mail or any other part of the Internet. By utilizing Citrix technology, DOC has been able to dramatically reduce costs associated with installing servers at each location. The Alaska DOC solution uses the most secure and robust equipment on the market.
"Print law libraries are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Today, budget crunches in many states are causing prison systems to re-evaluate the hefty costs associated with storing, organizing, maintaining and safeguarding their law libraries. LexisNexis helps prisons cut costs without impinging on the rights of inmates in their care," said Sheela Kesaree Zemlin, Director of Market Planning at LexisNexis.
LexisNexis provides a range of solutions to meet a correctional systems needs and budget. Prison facilities in Alabama are using LexisNexis DVDs with frequently updated content. LexisNexis and Touch Sonic, Inc. have installed wall-mounted kiosks with shatterproof touch screens in Hawaii, Indiana, and California.
The Alaska DOC has chosen to provide its inmates with 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, Shepard’s® Citations Service and resources like law dictionaries and guides to criminal defense.
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 Lexis® and Nexis® research services, the company includes some of the world’s most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, JurisClasseur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.
In the United States, LexisNexis® (www.lexisnexis.com) offers its customers total practice solutions comprised of an extensive range of online and print legal, regulatory, news and business information products, tools, customized Web applications and critical filing services that help legal professionals grow their business, win cases and manage their practice.
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