Despite its 50-year-old Freedom of Information Act—a law that requires bureaucrats and agencies to respond promptly to citizens’ requests for information on what their government is up to—authorities seem to take forever to respond to such requests in the Nutmeg State.
In fact, the Department of Corrections (DOC) took so long and used so many sneaky dodges to avoid answering a simple information request that the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) found that the Department had violated the state FOIA law.
“The Freedom of Information Act is a key tool for ensuring that government is open for, and thus accountable to, the public.”
On June 22, 2024, Jim Torlai, a retired mechanical engineer in Naugatuck, requested the names and photographs of 223 individuals processed into the New Haven Correctional Center in December 2022.
At first, the DOC ignored him, so he requested again. Then, he was told he had to submit his request through the online GovQA portal, and that “they would not begin to process his request until the request was received by them via the portal.”
Torlai did as instructed, at which point he received a demand for $204.41 for the “formatting and programming” required to fill the request.
When Torlai then narrowed his request, the agency claimed it had not been received by the correct FOIA administrator in the DOC.
“As long as it is the right agency, there is no ‘wrong’ person to send an FOI request to,” said Russell Blair of the FOIC.
Yet, in October 2024, the DOC simply closed down Torlai’s request—four months after it had originally been submitted!
When he filed a complaint, the FOIC ordered the DOC to turn over the information to Torlai without further delay—and without charge.
Bureaucrats and agencies are using a new trick to avoid providing information legitimately and legally requested by citizens. It’s called “slowrolling”—delaying answering information requests as long as possible, or at least until the requester files an appeal, at which point the information miraculously appears. Connecticut’s FOIA bill language is so vague in its requirements for prompt response times that agencies can easily use “slowrolling” to avoid providing information.
By slowrolling a request, bureaucrats are hoping they will cause many requesters to give up and go away.
As but one glaring example, a request filed by reporter Marc Fitch in March of 2023 took 20 months to fulfill.
Why?
Is the Connecticut government trying to hide some sort of terrible scandal, block the electorate from finding out about sneaky stuff going on behind closed doors or hiding the waste of huge amounts of taxpayer money?
Or is it just that bureaucrats and government agencies don’t want to release information about anything, because they simply despise pesky FOIA requirements, feeling that the law trespasses on their protected turf?
Or possibly they’re just too darn lazy to obey the law and do their jobs?
Journalist Katherine Revello wrote: “It becomes obvious that slowrolling is happening when, after months of inaction, officials suddenly produce documents following a threat to file a complaint with the FOIC.”
“A transparent government is the only way to keep and expand democratic freedoms for all of us.… Injustice thrives in the dark.”
Bureaucrats often claim that they encountered computer problems or are too short-handed to promptly answer requests.
But Revello wrote: “When agencies trot out a line about being overwhelmed by requests and understaffed, it’s most important to remember that FOIA is an essential tool for government transparency and accountability, and agency officials have a fundamental duty to take compliance seriously.
“That duty demands they manage the resources necessary to carry out that duty accordingly, and not seek to shift blame to the public for utilizing a law that is the best, and sometimes the only, tool compelling government to answer questions.”
On the federal level, Freedom has learned of other handy tricks bureaucrats use to keep their precious secrets—tricks like “glomaring,” by which agencies refuse to confirm that they even have the requested information, or use computer techies to “disappear” inconvenient and incriminating emails before they can be requested under FOIA.
In Connecticut, a Senate bill has been proposed to launch a $300,000 study of “state agency response times to Freedom of Information Act requests, providing its results to the legislature including a summary of average state agency response times, information about when unreasonable response times were the basis of a complaint filed with the FOI Commission and recommend[ing] legislation to address the study’s findings.”
“Responding to FOIA requests in a timely manner is a pillar of the law. However, too often state agencies drag their heels for months and, in some cases, years in producing records that have been requested and to which citizens and journalists are entitled,” said Michele Jacklin, co-president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information (CCFOI). “CCFOI supports SB 1408, which would provide essential information in determining whether the requirements of the FOIA are being met in a timely manner.”
“The ability to shed sunlight on government action through open records requests is essential to holding police accountable and to preventing state-sanctioned discrimination, abuse and mismanagement,” wrote Jess Zaccagnino, policy counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. “As an organization that values government transparency and accessibility, the ACLU-CT deeply believes in making and keeping governmental records open and available to all people in the widest possible range of circumstances.
“The Freedom of Information Act is a key tool for ensuring that government is open for, and thus accountable to, the public,” she continued. “Tardy responses to FOI requests should be taken very seriously, with the understanding that a transparent government is the only way to keep and expand democratic freedoms for all of us.… Injustice thrives in the dark.”
Of course, the bill failed to pass—after all, senators don’t want nosy citizens prying into their secrets, either. It was referred to the Joint Committee on Government Oversight, which is often the graveyard for dying legislation.
“The Commission testified in support of the proposal, noting that some state agencies have taken years to respond to records requests,” the government bill tracking site reported. “Senate Bill 1408 advanced out of the Government Oversight Committee but was not called for a vote in the Senate.”
As one of FOIA’s oldest and fiercest advocates, the Church of Scientology has a long and proud history of taking government agencies to task who are attempting to withhold information from the public, while forcing the burden of proof onto those agencies to demonstrate why they are refusing to provide allowable information.
As Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote: “Democracy depends exclusively on the informedness of the individual citizen.”
