Opinion
Case No. 16-CV-1518-JPS
02-09-2017
OUATI K. ALI, Plaintiff, v. SCOTT ECKSTEIN, MICHELLE HAESE, and MICHAEL DONOVAN, Defendants.
ORDER
Plaintiff, a prisoner, brings this action pro se pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff's recent letter in which he requests transfer to another prison. (Docket #11). Plaintiff requests that the Court order his transfer to another prison because, according to him, he has suffered retaliation from prison officials because he filed the instant lawsuit. Id. Plaintiff alleges that he has been denied certain religious practices, has not been able to send some mail, has had legal documents taken from him, has been placed in temporary lock-up (a type of segregation), and has been denied access to the law library. Id. He includes several documents with his letter which he believes support his allegations of recent retaliation.
Plaintiff's motion must be denied. First and foremost, the matter of transfer between correctional institutions is generally not within the Court's purview. Instead, this is an administrative matter for the Department of Corrections to consider. See Capoeira v. Pollard, Case No. 16-CV-224, 2016 WL 1452398, at *4 (E.D. Wis. Apr. 13, 2016); Lindsey v. Brown, No. 2:13-cv-00068-JMS-WGH, 2013 WL 5148347, at *1 (S.D. Ind. Sept. 11, 2013). Additionally, Plaintiff's unverified allegations of retaliation do not clearly demonstrate that he is in imminent danger of irreparable harm, thereby meriting preliminary injunctive relief. See Teamsters Local Unions Nos. 75 & 200 v. Barry Trucking, 176 F.3d 1004, 1011 (7th Cir. 1999); Christian Legal Soc'y v. Walker, 453 F.3d 853, 870 (7th Cir. 2006); Douglas v. Lemmon, No. 2:16-cv-00368-JMS-DKL, 2016 WL 7034965, at *2 (S.D. Ind. Dec. 2, 2016) (denying motion for transfer to another prison based on alleged retaliation for bringing lawsuit). The motion will, therefore, be denied.
Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff's request for prison transfer (Docket #11) be and the same is hereby DENIED.
Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 9th day of February, 2017.
BY THE COURT:
/s/_________
J.P. Stadtmueller
U.S. District Judge