In Re Garcia

Opinion

McINTYRE, J.

In February 1997, while incarcerated at California Medical Facility, Carlos Tomas Garcia requested permission to correspond with Tony Protopappas, an inmate at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (Donovan). Approval from both institutions is required before correspondence is permitted. Officials at California Medical Facility approved Garcia’s request. Officials at Donovan denied his request based on a policy which limits correspondence between Donovan inmates and inmates housed at other institutions to immediate family members, inmates having a child in common, and coparties or a witness in pending litigation.

Garcia petitions this court to order the Donovan warden to allow him to correspond with inmate Protopappas, contending (1) the Donovan policy violates the purpose of California Code of Regulations, title 15,

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section 3130 to encourage correspondence between inmates; (2) the Donovan policy is a regulation of general application, the adoption of which failed to comport with requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (Gov. Code, § 11340 et seq.); and (3) previous attempts to similarly limit correspondence between inmates without APA compliance have been disapproved by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL).

Garcia misinterprets section 3130, which encourages correspondence between inmates and persons

outside

correctional facilities, not inter-inmate correspondence. Moreover, the Donovan correspondence policy is a local rule applying solely to Donovan and is not subject to requirements of the APA. For the same reason, the previous OAL determinations which pertained to a rule of general application do not apply. Thus, we deny the petition.

Discussion

Mootness

Respondent contends the petition is moot because neither Garcia nor inmate Protopappas is currently housed at Donovan. While institutional transfers may have rendered the petition technically moot, we exercise our

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inherent discretion to decide the matter, which is of substantial public importance and has already resulted in another petition pending in this