Supreme Court Overturns Restrictions on Inmate Lawsuits

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court made a unanimous ruling to overturn a federal appeals court decision that made it harder for inmates to file lawsuits against correctional facilities.

The ruling was a victory for prisoners’ rights activists who say the appeals court ruling would have made it nearly impossible for inmates without a lawyer to get their cases to court.

The Supreme Court case involved the Sixth Circuit Court’s interpretation of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The circuit court ruling stated that inmates must exhaust possible remedies in the prison system before filing a federal complaint about prison conditions. The ruling forced the plaintiff to prove he had exhausted remedies, instead of placing the burden on the defense. Also, an inmate could not sue anyone that was not initially named during the prison complaint process, and a complaint with both exhausted and unexhausted claims would be dismissed.

The Supreme Court case was filed by three Michigan inmates.

In the ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the Supreme Court is not insensitive to the challenges lower federal courts face when handling inmate suits, which flooded the court system with nearly 42,000 civil suits before Congress passed the 1995 act. Since the act was passed, there have been about 24,000 suits filed each year.

In 2005, nearly 10 percent of all civil cases filed in federal courts were prisoner complaints challenging prison conditions or claiming civil rights violations, according to the ruling.

“Most of these cases have no merit; many are frivolous,” the ruling states. “Our legal system, however, remains committed to guaranteeing that prisoner claims of illegal conduct by their custodians are fairly handled according to law. The challenge lies in ensuring that the flood of nonmeritorious claims does not submerge and effectively preclude consideration of the allegations with merit.”