1、Order Code RS22617March 6, 2007Supreme Court Decision in Jones v. Bock:Exhaustion Requirements under the PrisonLitigation Reform ActPaul Starett Wallace, Jr.Specialist in American Public LawAmerican Law DivisionSummaryCongress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) to help reduce the straino
2、n the federal judicial system of extensive inmate litigation. The act mandatedexhaustion of federal and state administrative remedies before an inmate could file acivil rights action. The Sixth Circuit along with some other lower courts adoptedseveral procedural rules designed to implement this exha
3、ustion requirement andfacilitate early judicial screening. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve theconflict in Jones v. Bock, and two other consolidated cases, namely: Walton v.Bouchard, and Williams v. Overton, which it unanimously decided that failure toexhaust prison grievance procedur
4、es is an affirmative defense, thereby rejecting theCourt of Appeals procedural rules as exceeding the proper limits of the judical role.The issues in these cases were: (1) whether the PLRA prescribes “total exhaustion” thatrequires a federal court to dismiss a prisoners federal civil rights complain
