Cranford v. Rikers Island DOC

Background

Richard Cranford filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he is detained at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.

Fee requirements

The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay $405—the $350 filing fee and $55 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. To make that request, the prisoner must submit a signed application and an authorization directing the detention facility to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner's account in installments. The authorization must also direct the facility to send certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the preceding six months. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.

Order

Within 30 days of the order, Cranford must either pay the $405 in fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-7066 (LTS). No summons shall issue at this time. If he complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The opinion additionally cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner's federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim can count as a strike under the federal prisoner-litigation statute.