Rivers v. Department of Corrections NYC
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-00120
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Rivers v. Department of Corrections NYC, Judge Swain ordered Keith Rivers to pay fees or submit corrected forms within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed without prejudice.
Keith Rivers, who must either pay the required fees or submit amended fee-waiver and prisoner-authorization forms for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Rivers v. Department of Corrections NYC, Keith Rivers filed a civil action without a lawyer, without paying the required fees, and without submitting a complete application to proceed without prepaying fees. The opinion states that he is incarcerated at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island.
The court gave Rivers 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit amended forms requesting permission to proceed without prepaying fees and authorizing installment payments from his prison account. The court did not issue a summons. If Rivers does not comply, the action will be dismissed without prejudice.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order was dated January 8, 2024.
The detailed version
- Rivers v. Department of Corrections NYC · No. 1:24-cv-00120
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 8, 2024
Background
Keith Rivers filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he is incarcerated at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. He filed the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a fully completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application, together with a prisoner authorization.
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Court’s Order
The court stated that the prisoner authorization Rivers submitted was incomplete. Specifically, the opinion says that it authorized withdrawal of $350 from his prison account “rather than the full $350.00.” The court did not resolve the underlying claims in the complaint at this stage.
Within 30 days after January 8, 2024, Rivers must either pay the $402 in fees or submit the attached amended application and prisoner authorization forms. The forms should include docket number 24-CV-120 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If Rivers does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed without prejudice.
Other Ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The opinion also cautioned that a future dismissal of a prisoner action as frivolous, malicious, or for failing to state a claim can count as a statutory “strike,” and that three such 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.