UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA CENTRAL DIVISION

THOMAS PHILLIP BELL, 3:25-CV-03011-RAL Plaintiff, Vs. ORDER REQUIRING PLAINTIFF TO FILE A COMPLETED AND CERTIFIED JUDGE JOHN L. BROWN, Judge at Hughes PRISONER TRUST ACCOUNT REPORT County Teen Court, in individual and official OR PAY FULL FILING FEE □ capacity; KIAH MARSHALL, in individual capacity; and DURAL C. GROSS, Detective Officer at Hughes County, in individual and official capacity, Defendants.

Plaintiff Thomas Phillip Bell, an inmate at the Marion County Jail in Indianapolis, Indiana, filed a pro se civil rights lawsuit. Doc. 1. Bell filed a motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and included a prisoner trust account report. Docs. 2 and 3. But his prisoner trust account report was not completed; it did not provide his average monthly deposits for the last six months and was not signed by an authorized officer at Bell’s institution. Doc. 3. Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, a prisoner who “brings a civil action or files an appeal in forma pauperis .. . shall be required to pay the full amount of a filing fee.”

(b)(1). The court may, however, accept partial payment of the initial filing fee where appropriate. Thus, “[w]hen an inmate seeks pauper status, the only issue is whether the inmate pays the entire fee at the initiation of the proceeding or over a period of time under an installment plan.” Henderson v. Norris,

(8th Cir. 1997) (per curiam) (alteration in original) (quoting McGore v. Wrigglesworth,

(6th Cir. 1997)).

The initial partial filing fee that accompanies an installment plan is calculated according to

(b)(1), which requires a payment of 20 percent of the greater of: (A) the average monthly deposits to the prisoner’s account; or (B) the average monthly balance in the prisoner’s account for the 6—-month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint or notice of appeal. Bell has not submitted a completed and certified prisoner trust account report. See Doc. 3. This Court cannot evaluate Bell’s motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis without a certified and completed prisoner trust account report providing the required information. Bell must submit a completed prisoner trust account report or, in the alternative, pay the full $405 civil complaint filing fee by October 9, 2025. Failure to comply will result in dismissal without prejudice of Bell’s complaint for failure to prosecute. Accordingly, it is ORDERED that the Clerk of Court will send Bell a prisoner trust account report. It is further ORDERED that Bell must return the completed prisoner trust account report or pay the full $405 civil complaint filing fee by October 9, 2025. If Bell fails to comply with this order, his complaint will be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute. DATED September 1g _, 2025. BY THE COURT:

CHIEF JUDGE