Campbell v. Federal Bureau of Prisons
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-06723
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Campbell v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Judge Swain dismissed Campbell’s duplicate complaint without prejudice to his pending case.
George/Roland Campbell, whose duplicate complaint was dismissed; the court also directed that he not be charged a filing fee or have funds deducted or held for this action.
What happened
In Campbell v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, George/Roland Campbell, who was incarcerated and acting without a lawyer, claimed that he was wrongly denied good-conduct-time credits. He sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons and other defendants.
The court found that Campbell had already filed a substantially similar case against the same defendants, which was pending under docket number 23-CV-6526 (UA). It dismissed this complaint as duplicative, without prejudice to that pending case.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also directed the Clerk of Court not to charge Campbell the filing fee for this action and ordered that prison officials not deduct or hold money from his prison account for this lawsuit. The court denied permission to appeal without paying fees and directed the Clerk to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Campbell v. Federal Bureau of Prisons · No. 1:23-cv-06723
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 2, 2023
Background
George/Roland Campbell, who was incarcerated at F.C.I. Schuylkill and represented himself, filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleged that he had been wrongly denied good-conduct-time credits. The defendants named in the caption were the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the United States Attorney General, and Jane or John Doe defendants.
Reason for dismissal
The court stated that Campbell had previously filed a substantially similar complaint against the same defendants raising the same claim. That earlier case was pending under docket number 23-CV-6526 (UA). Because this action duplicated the pending case, the court concluded that filing and litigating it would serve no useful purpose.
Ruling and other orders
The court dismissed Campbell’s complaint as duplicative, without prejudice to his pending case under docket number 23-CV-6526 (UA). The court directed the Clerk of Court not to charge Campbell the $350 filing fee for this action and directed the official holding Campbell in custody not to deduct or hold funds from his prison trust account for this lawsuit. The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying the required fees. The Clerk was directed to enter judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.