Opinion ID: 726595
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Application of PLRA requirements to released prisoners

Text: 6 Our initial question is whether the PLRA requirements, applicable to a person who files an appeal (or a complaint) while a prisoner, continue to apply after the person has been released from confinement. Section 804(a)(3) of the PLRA states that if a prisoner brings a civil action or files an appeal in forma pauperis, the prisoner shall be required to pay the full amount of a filing fee. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1) (as amended). Section 804(a)(3) also specifies that the payments are to be made in installments: the initial payment is 20 percent of the greater of the average monthly deposits in the prisoner's account or the average balance in the account for the six months preceding the filing of a complaint or notice of appeal; subsequent payments are 20 percent of the preceding month's income credited to the prisoner's account in each month that the account exceeded $10. Id. § 1915(b)(1), (2) (as amended). 7 These provisions create a facial inconsistency as applied to a released prisoner. On the one hand, the statute broadly states that a prisoner who files an appeal shall be required to pay filing fees, and McGann was a prisoner when he filed his appeal. On the other hand, the amounts required to be paid are to be calculated as percentages of the balances of, or deposits into, the prisoner's prison account and are to be debited from that account, and now that McGann is no longer a prisoner, there is no prison account from which to calculate and debit the required payments. Thus, a literal reading of all provisions of the PLRA, as applied to released prisoners, is not possible. 8 There are two ways this facial inconsistency could be resolved. The PLRA could be construed to mean that once a prisoner files a complaint or appeal, he becomes liable for the full amount of filing fees, and, if released, must then pay the entire remaining amount of those fees or have his complaint or appeal dismissed. Alternatively, the PLRA could be construed to mean that the required partial fee payments are to be made only while the prisoner remains in prison, and that, upon his release, his obligation to pay fees is to be determined, like any non-prisoner, solely by whether he qualifies for i.f.p. status. 9 We think that the second construction better conforms to the overall structure of the PLRA. Though Congress specified that a prisoner shall pay the full amount of filing fees, the detailed mechanism it created for implementing this obligation by debiting prison accounts demonstrates that Congress expected the new payment requirement to apply to a prisoner who remains incarcerated. Indeed, if the payment obligation continued after release, the released prisoner, lacking a prison account from which partial payments could be debited, would have to pay the entire balance of the fee in a single payment, a result that would be more onerous than that imposed on those who remain incarcerated. It is not likely that Congress intended such a result. A released prisoner may litigate without further prepayment of fees upon satisfying the poverty affidavit requirement applicable to all non-prisoners. 10 This construction of the PLRA fully comports with the congressional purpose of deterring prisoner suits by making their prison accounts subject to fee payments. See Leonard, 88 F.3d at 185. Though it is arguable that not imposing continued fee payment obligations on released prisoners lessens the deterrent that might inhibit those prisoners about to be released from filing lawsuits, any prisoner so inclined, who might be deterred by a continued fee payment obligation, could simply wait until release and then file lawsuits. Apprehension about prisoner suits being filed just prior to release, therefore, does not justify applying the PLRA requirements to released prisoners.