Donald Waters v. Dept. of Corrections

Despite the assertion and presentation of evidence that appellant’s formal grievance appeal was timely turned over to prison officials for mailing pursuant to the “prison mailbox rule” and Gonzalez v. State, 604 So.2d 874 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992), the circuit court dismissed his petition for writ of mandamus to compel the Department of Corrections (Department) to consider his grievance appeal on the merits. Finding that appellant failed to take advantage of an optional internal logging/tracking process and instead sent his grievance appeal through the U.S. mail which was receipted at the central…