The Alabama Senate passed a bill today to say state agencies have to allow people to take photos of public documents and cannot charge a fee for doing so.

Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said he made the proposal after reading an AL.com story about a Department of Corrections policy.

Last year, DOC required an AL.com reporter to pay for paper copies of prison health care contracts instead of photographing them with his phone.

"The fact that we were charging just to take photos of public documents makes no sense," Orr said.

Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton said today the agency has changed the policy and allows photos of documents at no charge.

State law says citizens have a right to inspect and take a copy of any public writing or document, with exceptions.

Agencies can charge a reasonable fee to cover the actual cost of making paper copies, according to an attorney general's opinion issued in 1998. The fee cannot be imposed to restrict public access.

Hard copies are often unnecessary in the age of phone cameras.

Another attorney general's opinion, issued in 2009, said government agencies could not charge a fee to someone using their personal camera to copy a public record.

The Senate approved an amendment by Sen. Phil Williams, R-Rainbow City, to exempt county probate offices from Orr's bill.

Williams said he did not want the Legislature to take away fees that that probate offices might already have in place, saying that would amount to an "unfunded mandate."

Updated at 5:33 p.m. to say the Department of Corrections has changed its policy.