Missouri Prison Reform sends a digital newsletter to those who are incarcerated in Missouri prisons. Last month in our newsletter we informed people of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), the “exhaustive rule”, and the importance of following through with the grievance process. We received the below response from one man who is currently incarcerated.
“I just wanted to add to this month’s article about exhausting the grievance procedure before going to the lawsuit. As I myself have experienced dismissal of a lawsuit because I did not properly exhaust the grievance procedure (a $1000 mistake)I have a bit of great advice for future civil action filers. Familiarize yourself with the grievance rules, that apply to you yourself and especially rules that apply to staff. Staff will violate the rules of the PLRA and also violate institutional grievance policies and rules and if you do not catch them and point it out in your grievance procedure the court WILL dismiss your civil action. I cannot stress enough that you need to be on top of ALL time limits and restrictions and follow them completely, if you do not d.o.c. will bring that to the court’s attention, that is a common way d.o.c. gets civil actions dismissed. A copy of d.o.c. institutional grievance policy and procedures are available in the library. Thank you for your articles and your time and for keeping me on your mailing list.”
