Baker v. EMTC Rikers Island

Background

QAAIM BAKER filed this civil action against EMTC RIKERS ISLAND while detained at the Robert N. Davoren Complex on Rikers Island. The opinion states that Baker is representing himself. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or the required prisoner authorization.

Payment or application requirement

The court explained that filing a civil action ordinarily requires $405: a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee. A prisoner may request permission to proceed without prepaying those fees by submitting a signed application and a prisoner authorization. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that status.

Order

Within 30 days of the order, Baker must either pay the $405 in fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-1154 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If Baker complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.

Additional warning

The court cautioned that a future dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim may count as a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). After three such strikes, a prisoner generally cannot proceed without prepaying fees in federal civil actions unless the prisoner is under imminent danger of serious physical injury.