Keywuan Melvin v. C/O Steber

Summary

The court dismissed Keywaun Melvin’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action without prejudice because he failed to exhaust available Illinois Department of Corrections administrative remedies before filing suit. The court concluded that Melvin improperly appealed an emergency grievance directly to the Administrative Review Board after it was designated non-emergency and did not show that he completed the required prison-level grievance process.

Holdings

1. A prisoner may not bring a lawsuit about prison conditions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 until all available administrative remedies have been properly exhausted.
2. Plaintiff failed to properly exhaust his administrative remedies because, after his emergency grievance was deemed non-emergency, he did not resubmit it through the ordinary prison grievance process and instead appealed directly to the Administrative Review Board.
3. The alleged failure to respond within 30 days did not excuse Plaintiff's failure to exhaust because the applicable Illinois grievance rules did not impose the asserted 30-day response deadline, and the 60-day processing period was aspirational rather than an automatic authorization to sue.
4. The court could dismiss the action before requiring an answer because the failure-to-exhaust defense was apparent from the complaint and its exhibits.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the complaint should be dismissed because Plaintiff failed to exhaust available administrative remedies before filing the § 1983 action.
2. Whether Plaintiff's allegations and exhibits established on the face of the complaint that the exhaustion defense applied.
3. Whether the prison's failure to respond within Plaintiff's asserted deadline excused his failure to complete the required grievance process.

Disposition

dismissed