Inmate says his rights are being violated

MARTINSBURG - An inmate in Eastern Regional Jail has filed an injunction against the jail seeking to exercise his Constitutional rights.

Steven W. Funt, who is representing himself, filed a suit Feb. 26 in Berkeley Circuit Court against the West Virginia Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. Funt currently resides in the Eastern Regional Jail.

The suit says Funt's First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments have been violated.

Funt has been working on attaining a better understanding of the law, and helping his lawyer work on his appeal, the suit says. However, the jail has not supplied his with additional contents of the law library and legal supplies.

"Defendant(s) refused to photocopy anything he can muster up for his appeals," the suit says. The suit also says the jail has refused to supply Funt with enough paper so he can draft legal documents and he "is forced to give one of his three meals to get the legal paper."

Funt also claims that the defendants refuse to help anyone search for cases in the law library, which is a computer that blocks out certain things.

Funt seeks an injunction against the jail and asks for an immediate hearing in the matter.

The case has been assigned to Judge Christopher Wilkes.

Berkeley Circuit Court case number 07-C-178