James Adolphis Boyd v. Tana Wood

James Adolphis Boyd, a Kansas state prisoner housed at the Washington State Penitentiary pursuant to the Interstate Corrections Compact (ICC), appeals pro se the district court’s 28 U.S-.C. § 1915(d) dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging that Washington state prison authorities have denied him meaningful access to the courts because the law library at the Washington State Penitentiary contained inadequate Kansas state law materials. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review for abuse of discretion the district court’s determination that a claim is frivolous under § 1915(d), Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33-35 , 112 S.Ct. 1728, 1734 , 118 L.Ed.2d 340 (1992), and we affirm.

Here, we need only determine whether the Washington officials had the responsibility to assure Boyd reasonable access to the Kansas legal materials he needed for his allegedly pending litigation in the Kansas courts. This presents an issue of first impression in this Circuit. The Tenth Circuit has held that sending state authorities maintain the responsibility of providing required state legal materials for their prisoners incarcerated in sister state facilities. Clayton v.…