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PLRA Confuses Courts; Applies Only to Prisoners
Loaded on May 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
May, 1997, page 10
To illustrate how poorly written the PLRA is, the court of appeals for the sixth circuit held that 28 U.S.C. § 1915 still "allows individuals who are not prisoners to litigate a case without the prepayment of filing fees." In their haste to kick prisoners out of court, Congress rewrote …
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More from this issue:
- US Supreme Court: Oklahoma Pre-Parole Program Requires Hearing Before Removal
- California PIA Employees Lose Minimum Wage Suit
- Consent Decrees Create Enforceable Right
- Notes from the Unrepenitentiary: " Schooling the generations in the politics of prison", by Laura Whitehorn
- Matter of Fact
- Sixth Circuit Defines Legal Mail
- PLRA Codifies Injunction Standards in Conditions Case
- PLRA Applied to Released Prisoners
- Indiana Muslim Consent Decree Vacated under PLRA
- PLRA Allows Sua Sponte Dismissal
- PLRA Fee Requirements Not Applicable to Pending Suits
- PLRA Confuses Courts; Applies Only to Prisoners
- Ninth Circuit Affirms BOP Sentence Reductions
- Drug Policy as Social Control, by Noam Chomsky
- Virginia Warden Stabbed, by Dan Pens
- Should Prisoners Have the Right to Strike? Some Union Leaders Say "Yes!", by Phil Wilayto
- Texas Prisoners Get Second-Rate Doctors
- New Jersey Prison Guard Recruiting for KKK
- Update on Washington Money Seizure Suit, by Paul Wright
- Democracy, Racism and Disenfranchisement
- Reviews
- Illinois DOC Phone System Upheld
- Moors Settle with Indiana DOC
- Seventh Circuit Questions ADA Applicability to Prisons
- Disciplinary Finding Must Be Supported by Reliable Evidence
- Qualified Immunity for Infraction Suit
- No Care for STD Violates Eighth Amendment
- $1.65 Million Jury Verdict in Cell Assignment Case Affirmed
- Racial Rioting Erupts in L.A. Jail
- Mental Unhealth and Prisons, by E.D.
- Guard Tower Scam, by A.L.
- Do the Math, by E.D.
- News in Brief
- RFRA Allows Redaction of Religious Publication
- TRO Granted in DC Smoking Suit
- Washington EFV Ban Upheld
- $75,000 Jury Verdict in Prisoner Attack Affirmed
More from these topics:
- SCOTUS Continues to Hack Away At First Step Act, July 1, 2026. Conditions of Confinement, PLRA, Post-release, ex-offender, re-entry, Sentences - Corrections or Modifications of, Compassionate Release.
- Free Phone Calls Saved Prisoners and Their Families More than $600 Million, Report Finds, July 1, 2026. Conditions of Confinement, PLRA, Prisoner Privileges, Rehabilitation/Recidivism, Telephones.
- Fifth Circuit Kills Louisiana Prison Medical and Mental Health Care Reform, July 1, 2026. Medical, Conditions of Confinement, PLRA, Immunity/Liability, Mental Health.
- Eighth Circuit Rules Iowa Prisoner’s Adverse Summary Judgment Is Not a “Strike”, March 1, 2026. Filing Fees (PLRA), Frivolous Litigation (PLRA), Summary Judgment, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Access To Courts.
- Sixth Circuit Clarifies What Constitutes PLRA “Strike” and Reinstates Michigan Prisoner’s Lawsuit, Nov. 1, 2025. Filing Fees (PLRA), Frivolous Litigation, Sovereign Immunity, Access To Courts.
- Ninth Circuit Springs California Prisoners from “Catch-22” Reading of PLRA, Oct. 1, 2025. Filing Fees (PLRA), Mental Health.
- Ninth Circuit Refunds Filing Fee to “Struck-Out” California Prisoner Denied Indigent Status Under PLRA, May 1, 2024. Filing Fees (PLRA), Recalling Mandate, Three Strike Litigants.
- “Third Time Is Not the Charm” For Texas Jailers Barred by PLRA from Enforcing Prior Settlement Agreement Against Prisoner in New Suit, May 1, 2024. Jail Specific, PLRA, Settlements, Attorney Calls, Civil Settlement - Effect of, Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), Wiretaps/Wiretap Evidence.
- Finding Indiana Grievance Process “Unavailable,” Federal Judge Grants Summary Judgment to 22 Prisoners on Same Day, April 1, 2024. PLRA, Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA), Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA).
- Tenth Circuit: Colorado Prisoner’s Injury Requiring Medical Treatment Not De Minimus, July 15, 2023. Failure to Treat, PLRA.

