Opinion ID: 166742
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Oklahoma Law Regarding Use of Mandatory Savings Accounts

Text: 4 Prisoners in Oklahoma are required to keep a mandatory savings account, in which they must deposit twenty percent of the wages they earn from prison employment. They may only access the account to pay fees or costs in filing a civil or criminal action as defined in Section 151 et seq. of Title 28 of the Oklahoma Statutes. OKLA. STAT. tit. 57, § 549(A)(5) (2004). Section 151(A), in turn, provides that district court clerks shall charge and collect the fees imposed by this title, [and] fines, costs and assessments imposed by the district court or appellant courts. Okla. Stat. tit. 28, § 151(A) (2004). Our court has recently concluded that Oklahoma inmates can use mandatory savings accounts to pay any fee, fine, cost or assessment imposed by any section of Title 28 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Included under Title 28 and payable by a mandatory savings account are photocopy charges imposed by a court clerk for obtaining official records and transcripts. Gamble v. Calbone, 375 F.3d 1021, 1029 (10th Cir.2004) (citing Okla. Stat. tit. 28, § 31). 5 Despite the broad sweep of section 151(A) and the inclusion of copying costs in Title 28, when Mr. Wilson followed the usual procedures and requested, in writing from the proper prison authorities, the release of $170 from his mandatory savings account to pay for copies of proceedings in his criminal conviction for use in his post-conviction appeal, the private prison officials charged him with a Class X misconduct. Any violation of city, state, or federal law constitutes a Class X misconduct, the most serious class of prison misconduct. Gamble, 375 F.3d at 1025 n. 4; Okla. Dep't of Corr. (DOC) Policy OP-060125, Attachment A. Here, prison officials accused Mr. Wilson of violating Okla. Stat. tit. 21, § 1541.1, which prohibits obtaining money under false pretenses. The only evidence for the charge was the written form Mr. Wilson had submitted to prison officials. On the form, he requested payment from his account to attain transcripts and court documents from Murray County Court Clerk. Rec. vol. I, doc. 2, Ex. B (Request to Staff, Oct. 9, 2001). 6