Unknowable Remedies: Albino V. Baca, The Plra Exhaustion Requirement, and the Problem of Notice

On April 3, 2014, in Albino v. Baca, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that when a prisoner plaintiff has not been informed of a prison administrative remedy, that remedy is effectively unavailable to the prisoner for the purposes of the exhaustion requirement of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). This decision conflicts with what a majority of other circuits have established and widens the gap between those circuits on this issue. This Comment argues for the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve this circuit split in a future case and hold that to fail to give a prisoner notice of an administrative remedy is to make that remedy effectively unavailable.