Opinion
Case No. 15-CV-804
07-08-2015
MARTELL D. ROGERS, Plaintiff, v. WARDEN DONALD STRAHOTA, et al., Defendants.
DECISION AND ORDER
In an Order entered July 7, 2015, the Court directed the plaintiff to pay an initial partial filing fee of $14.69 on or before July 28, 2015. Now before the Court is the plaintiff's motion for use of prison release account to pay partial filing fee.
The PLRA requires courts to collect filing fees from "prisoner's accounts." 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b). As stated in Doty v. Doyle, 182 F. Supp. 2d 750 (E.D. Wis. 2002):
the courts have found that when a prisoner's general fund has insufficient funds to pay filing fees, both the . . . Wisconsin PLRA . . . and the . . . federal PLRA . . . authorize the courts to order that the money in a prisoner's release be made available for that purpose. Spence v. Cooke, 222 Wis. 2d 530, 537 (Ct. App. 1998); Spence v. McCaughtry, 46 F. Supp. 2d 861 (E.D. Wis. 1999). (All the same, in deference to the Wisconsin public policy behind release accounts, judges of this district do not routinely look to prisoners' release accounts when they assess initial partial filing fees under the federal PLRA,The plaintiff has sufficient funds in his release account to pay the initial partial filing fee for this case, and the Court respects the plaintiff's choice to use his release funds to pay his initial partial filing fee.
Smith v. Huibregtse, 151 F. Supp. 2d 1040, 1042 (E.D. Wis. 2001), although they will do so upon request from the prisoner, as in Spence v. McCaughtry.) Id. at 751.
NOW, THEREFORE, BASED ON THE FOREGOING, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the plaintiff's motion for use of prison release account to pay initial partial filing fee (ECF No. 7) is GRANTED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, upon the plaintiff's request, the warden at the correctional institution where the plaintiff is incarcerated shall withdraw a total of $14.69 from the plaintiff's release account and forward that sum to the Clerk of this Court as the initial partial filing fee in this action. Such payment is to be made on or before July 28, 2015.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be sent to the warden at Waupun Correctional Institution.
Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 8th day of July, 2015.
BY THE COURT:
/s/ _________
HON. RUDOLPH T. RANDA
U.S. District Judge