Schmidt, Harry v. Oshkosh Correctional Institution

Filing 76

ORDER denying 73 Motion to Stop Mail Interference. Signed by Magistrate Judge Stephen L. Crocker on 9/12/2017. (jef),(ps)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

HARRY G. SCH M IDT , JR.

ORDER

Plaintiff,

Case No. 16-cv-30-slc

v.
NANCY BOW EN

AND

CH RISTINE FOW LER ,

Defendants.

Plaintiff Harry Schmidt is proceeding pro se against a nurse practitioner and a nurse on a
claim that he was denied medical care related to a back injury and breathing problems while
incarcerated at Oshkosh Correctional Institution (“OCI”). On July 24, 2017, he filed a letter with
the court that the clerk docketed as a “Motion to Stop Mail Interference.” Dkt. 73. In his letter,
he accuses unnamed prison staff members of intercepting mail to and from his mother, and of
opening his mail from a lawyer who is helping him with a different case. He asks the court to “help
[him] try to get back to WRC or to CCI.”
Plaintiff’s motion must be denied. His vague allegations of mail interference do not relate
to the claims at issue in this lawsuit and he does not allege that this is preventing him from litigating
this suit. The fact that plaintiff has a case pending in this court does not grant the court general
supervisory authority over the prison officials who are guarding him, or any say over where he is
housed. To the extent that plaintiff may think he has been deprived of his constitutional rights as
a result of the alleged mail interference, then he must raise that claim in a separate complaint and
must a separate filing fee, provided, however, that he first exhausts his administrative remedies. In
the meantime, absent a showing by plaintiff that he is unable to litigate this lawsuit as a result of the
alleged mail interference, this court shall take no action on the general allegations raised in plaintiff’s
letter.
ORDER
It is ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion to Stop Mail Interference, dkt. 73, is DENIED

Entered this 12th day of September, 2017.
BY THE COURT:
/s/
STEPHEN L. CROCKER
Magistrate Judge