Yung v. Rikers Island Prison Warden of OBCC
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-04818
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Yung v. Rikers Island Prison Warden of OBCC, Chief Judge Swain transferred Yung’s detention petition to the Eastern District of New York.
John Yung’s Section 2241 detention petition was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Eastern District of New York; the transferee court will decide whether he may proceed without paying filing fees.
What happened
In Yung v. Rikers Island Prison Warden of OBCC, John Yung, a person held before trial and representing himself, challenged his detention without bail while criminal proceedings were pending in Kings County, New York.
Judge Swain explained that a detention challenge generally belongs in the federal district covering the person’s custodian or confinement. Although Rikers Island falls within both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, Yung’s criminal case was pending in Kings County, so the Eastern District was the more appropriate court.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain transferred the petition to the Eastern District of New York. She closed the case in the Southern District, terminated Yung’s motion for preliminary relief, left any decision about proceeding without paying filing fees to the transferee court, and denied fee-free status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Yung v. Rikers Island Prison Warden of OBCC · No. 1:24-cv-04818
- Laura Swain
- July 10, 2024
Background
John Yung, who was detained before trial at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging his detention without bail. He represented himself. The detention arose from criminal proceedings pending in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Criminal Court, Kings County, under case number IND-71296-23/001. Yung also had a motion for preliminary injunctive relief pending at ECF 3.
Reason for Transfer
A court hearing a petition under Section 2241 must have jurisdiction over the person’s custodian. For a petition challenging physical confinement, jurisdiction generally lies in the district where the person is confined. The opinion states that Rikers Island is generally understood to be part of both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and that both districts can hear habeas petitions from people incarcerated there.
Because Yung’s criminal proceedings were pending in Kings County, the court transferred the petition to the Eastern District of New York in the interest of justice under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). The court did not decide whether Yung’s challenge to his detention was legally valid.
Order
The court directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The order closed the case in the Southern District of New York and directed the Clerk to terminate the motion for preliminary injunctive relief. The Eastern District was left to decide whether Yung could proceed without paying filing fees because he had not paid the filing fee or submitted an application to proceed without paying it. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.