1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 DONALD R. LAFLAMME, 7 Case No. 22-cv-09105-RS (PR) Petitioner, 8 v. ORDER OF DISMISSAL 9 JEFF LYNCH, 10 Respondent. 11

12 13 A review of the petition for writ of habeas corpus shows that petitioner sets forth 14 claims regarding the conditions of confinement. This means that his claims are not the 15 proper subject of a habeas action, but must be brought as a civil rights action under 42

. See Badea v. Cox,

(9th Cir. 1991) (civil rights action 17 proper method for challenging conditions of confinement); Crawford v. Bell,

, 18 891-892 & n.1 (9th Cir. 1979) (affirming dismissal of habeas petition on basis that 19 challenges to terms and conditions of confinement must be brought in civil rights 20 complaint). 21 In an appropriate case a habeas petition may be construed as a section 1983 22 complaint. Wilwording v. Swenson,

(1971). Although the Court may 23 construe a habeas petition as a civil rights action, it is not required to do so. Since the time 24 when the Wilwording case was decided there have been significant changes in the law. For 25 instance, the filing fee for a habeas petition is five dollars; for civil rights cases, however, 26 the fee is now $400 ($350 if pauper status is granted) and under the Prisoner Litigation 27 Reform Act the prisoner is required to pay it, even if granted in forma pauperis status, by 1 A prisoner who might be willing to file a habeas petition for which he or she would not 2 have to pay a filing fee might feel otherwise about a civil rights complaint for which the 3 $400 fee would be deducted from income to his or her prisoner account. Also, a civil 4 rights complaint which is dismissed as malicious, frivolous, or for failure to state a claim 5 would count as a “strike” under

(g), which is not true for habeas cases. 6 In view of these potential pitfalls for petitioner if the Court were to construe the 7 petition as a civil rights complaint, the case is DISMISSED without prejudice to petitioner 8 filing a civil rights action if he wishes to do so in light of the above. The Clerk shall enter 9 judgment in favor of respondent, and close the file. 10 IT IS SO ORDERED. 11 Dated: January_3__, 2023 _________________________ 12 RICHARD SEEBORG 13 Chief United States District Judge 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27