Lewis v. Rikers Island DOC

Background

Moriyah Lewis filed this civil action while detained at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island and proceeded without a lawyer. The complaint was submitted without the required filing fees, a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, or a prisoner authorization.

Fee and application requirements

The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed application requesting permission to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If that application is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected from the prisoner’s account in installments. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that status.

Order

The court ordered Lewis to comply within 30 days of the order by either paying the $405 in fees or submitting the attached application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-7070 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If Lewis complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures. If Lewis does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.

Appeal and statutory warning

Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The court also 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 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).