Davis v. Milwaukee County.

• Position: Prisoner alleges violation of his right of access to the courts

U.S. District Court

LEGAL MATERIALS

EXHAUSTION

PLRA -- Prison Litigation Reform Act

FRIVOLOUS SUITS

Davis v. Milwaukee County, 225 F.Supp.2d 967 (E.D.Wis. 2002). A state prisoner filed a pro se [section] 1983 action claiming that his constitutional right of access to the courts was violated when he was a pretrial detainee at a county jail. The defendants moved for summary judgment and the district court granted the motion in part, and denied it in part. The district court held that the detainee's access to courts was impeded because the county sheriff and others interfered with the detainee's ability to exhaust administrative remedies, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). According to the court, the detainee was unable to learn about the newly-enacted PLRA due to the absence of any legal materials at the jail, and only learned of the Act's exhaustion requirements after he had been transferred from the jail, when it was too late. The court noted that even if the detainee had known about PLRA, the absence of materials at the jail about the grievance procedure itself would have prevented him from knowing how to fully exhaust. When the defendants' rejected the detainee's grievance they...