MuckRock is currently taking submissions of your FOIA fee stories. With just one week into our crowdsource, requesters far and wide have brought their issues to the table. While submitted responses vary, overall they show major discrepancies in the FOIA fee system across the country.

Last month, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice denied MuckRock a fee waiver for a public records request regarding immigration policy, stating that the TDCJ “does not waive fees for this type of request.” Last year, TDCJ made the same argument to justify a cost estimates of over one million dollars for records related to sexual assault in prison. This begs the question - what type of requests do TDCJ waive fees for?