Winston v. Sauvey

Filing 62

ORDER signed by Judge J P Stadtmueller on 7/18/2019 DENYING 61 Plaintiff's Motion for Access to Release Account. (cc: all counsel, via mail to Shomas T Winston at Fox Lake Correctional Institution) (jm)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
SHOMAS T. WINSTON,
Plaintiff,
v.
MARY SAUVEY,

Case No. 16-CV-95-JPS

ORDER
Defendant.

This case was dismissed on December 29, 2016. (Docket #54). A
subsequent appeal was dismissed on March 31, 2017. (Docket #60). Now,
Plaintiff moves the Court for an order allowing him to access his release
account, in light of Nigl v. Litscher, No. 19-cv-105-BBC, 2019 WL 2269727
(W.D. Wis. May 28, 2019). (Docket #61). Plaintiff believes that Nigl
empowers prisoners to persuade the Department of Corrections to give
them access to their release accounts. Id. Actually, Nigl does no such thing—
it simply reiterates that federal courts generally do not have power to order
states to give access to release accounts to pay for general litigation costs.
The court in Nigl denied a plaintiff’s request to use his release
account statement because the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act
(“PLRA”) “does not give federal courts authority to force the state to pay
the remainder of an inmate’s filing fee in a lump sum directly from his
release account instead of from his regular account.” Id. at *2. The court
noted, however, that “state courts in Wisconsin have allowed inmates to
pay litigation fees and costs from release accounts” based on the Wisconsin
PLRA. Id. In other words, Wisconsin state law (the Wisconsin PLRA)
authorizes Wisconsin state courts to allow inmates to access their release

accounts for litigation costs. By contrast, federal law (the PLRA) does not.
Plaintiff does not need an order from this Court to allow him “to try to
persuade Department of Corrections officials to give him access to funds in
his release account.” Id. He was always free to try.
Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff’s motion to access release account
(Docket #61) be and the same is hereby DENIED.
Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 18th day of July, 2019.
BY THE COURT:

J.P. Stadtmueller
U.S. District Judge

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