Opinion
No. 3:05 CV 128.
March 31, 2006
OPINION AND ORDER
When Clarence Davis filed this action, he was a prisoner confined at the St. Joseph County Jail. The court granted Mr. Davis leave to proceed without full prepay-ment of fees and costs. Granting a prisoner's request to proceed in forma pauperis means that the inmate must pay the full filing fee, but may benefit from procedures whereby he will be permitted to pay the fee in installments from his prison trust account. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b). The court waived the initial partial filing fee in this case and Mr. Davis has not yet paid the filing fee.
The jail returned mail sent to Mr. Davis with the notation "left facility." The Seventh Circuit has held that where a prisoner is released before paying the filing fee in full, he must pay any initial partial filing fee that is assessed, and any installment payments justified by the income to his prisoner trust account. Robbins v. Switzer, 104 F.3d 895, 897-8 (7th Cir. 1997). Section 1915(b)(4) permits a former prisoner who has paid the initial partial filing fee assessed under Section 1915(b)(1) and any installment payments due under Section 1915(b)(2), to be excused from further payments on the filing fee if he is destitute. Id. at 898. Because it appeared that Mr. Davis had been released from custody and was no longer confined in any jail or penal facility, the court afforded him time within which to pay the filing fee in this case or file a petition to proceed in forma paperis as a nonprisoner. The plaintiff has now filed a new petition to proceed in forma pauperis giving as his address the St. Joseph County Jail. Because Mr. Davis is still a prisoner, the court's order of July 7, 2005, is still in effect and a second motion to proceed in forma pauperis is unnecessary.
For the foregoing reasons, the court DENIES the plaintiff's second motion to proceed in forma pauperis (docket #10) as unnecessary.