Ferrington v. Louisiana Department of Corrections

The significant issue in this prisoner’s civil rights case appeal is whether Ricky Ferrington (“Ferrington”) failed to exhaust the Louisiana prison grievance remedies because such remedies were not “available” to him. Ferrington’s argument turns on the interpretation of a recent Louisiana Supreme Court decision, Pope v. State, 792 So.2d 713 (La.2001). We conclude that although Pope held Louisiana’s statutory prison grievance system unconstitutional to the extent that it purported to deprive state courts of original jurisdiction over prisoner cases, Pope did not obliterate the prison grievance…