Opinion ID: 617058
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dismissed Claim

Text: Sharpe conceded that he had yet to exhaust his administrative remedies for his claim that Schultz was deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs by failing to insure that FCI Fairton had working emergency panic buttons for inmates. Therefore, he requested that the District Court grant him a temporary stay to allow him to exhaust his administrative remedies. The Prisoner Litigation Reform Act prohibits a prisoner from bringing a civil rights suit “until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.” 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). Thus, the exhaustion of all available administrative remedies is a precondition to filing suit. See Ahmed v. Dragovich, 297 F.3d 201, 209 & n.9 (3d Cir. 2002). The failure to exhaust “requir[es] an outright dismissal of such [claims] rather than issuing continuances so that exhaustion may occur.” Johnson v. Jones, 340 F.3d 624, 628 (8th Cir. 2003) (collecting cases and holding that a complaint must be dismissed if exhaustion was not completed at time of filing). Because Sharpe failed to exhaust his claim regarding emergency panic buttons prior to filing his Bivens action, the District Court properly dismissed the claim and properly denied his motion for a temporary stay. 5