Unknowable Remedies: \u3cem\u3eAlbino v. Baca\u3c/em\u3e, 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