Dash v. Rikers Island DOC

Background

Ryan Dash filed this civil action without a lawyer while detained at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without a completed application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying the filing fees, or a prisoner authorization.

Requirements for proceeding

The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed IFP application and prisoner authorization. If IFP status is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account, and the authorization must allow those deductions and provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.

Ruling and next steps

Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Dash to pay the $405 or submit the required IFP application and prisoner authorization within 30 days of the order. The documents should identify docket number 25-CV-7063 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If Dash 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. The order did not decide the underlying claims. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The court cautioned that certain later dismissals could count as strikes under the prisoner litigation statute, but it did not impose a strike in this order.