Squire v. Department of Corrections

Background

Sonny Squire filed this civil action without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying the fees, or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Squire was detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island and was proceeding without a lawyer. It also states that his complaint was originally filed with 49 other detainees and that the claims were later separated into individual cases.

Order

The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit an IFP application and prisoner authorization. If IFP status is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires collection of the $350 filing fee in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to send the court certified account statements for the previous six months.

The court ordered Squire, within 30 days of the order, to choose one of those two options. Any IFP application and prisoner authorization had to identify docket number 20-CV-9495 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail Squire a copy of the order and record service on the docket. The court stated that no summons would issue at that time and that the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures if Squire complied. If he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed.

Appeal and caution

Judge McMahon certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner's civil action as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim may count as a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). The court did not decide the underlying claims in the complaint.