Bacon v. Reed
- Laura Swain
- 1:20-cv-05993
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bacon v. Reed, Judge McMahon ordered incarcerated plaintiff Ryan-Mykal S. Bacon to pay fees or submit authorization to proceed without prepayment.
Ryan-Mykal S. Bacon, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Bacon v. Reed, Ryan-Mykal S. Bacon, who was incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action but submitted only an application to proceed without paying fees in advance. He did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court gave Bacon 30 days to either pay the $400 in fees or complete and submit the prisoner authorization. That authorization would allow installment deductions of the $350 filing fee from his prison account and require account records to be sent to the court. The court directed that no summons issue at that time.
If Bacon did not comply, the action would be dismissed. Judge Colleen McMahon also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and cautioned about possible filing “strikes” for certain future dismissals.
The detailed version
- Bacon v. Reed · No. 1:20-cv-05993
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 3, 2020
Background
Ryan-Mykal S. Bacon filed this civil action while incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility and represented himself. The defendants listed in the caption are Brett Reed, a correctional officer, and Johnathan Jones, an inmate. Bacon submitted an application to proceed without prepaying the filing fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Requirements to Proceed
The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepayment by submitting a signed application and prisoner authorization. If permission to proceed without prepayment is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires collection of the $350 filing fee through installment deductions from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the prior six months.
The court ordered Bacon, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 20-CV-5993 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time.
Rulings and Consequences
The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants. It stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures if Bacon complied and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time.
Judge Colleen McMahon certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and therefore denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The court also cautioned that a future dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim can count as a “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), and that three strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.