OPINION OF THE COURT
BECKER, Chief Judge.
This appeal by Timothy Booth from an order of the District Court dismissing his prisoner’s civil rights action presents two important questions about the meaning of the mandatory administrative exhaustion requirement in the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996 (the PLRA). Booth alleges that while he was confined in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institute at Smithfield, several prison guards, on several occasions, punched him in the face, threw cleaning material in his face, shoved him into a [291]*291shelf, and tightened and twisted his handcuffs in such a manner as to injure him. Asserting his Eighth Amendment right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment, Booth, acting pro se, brought this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 excessive force action in the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, requesting various forms of monetary and injunctive relief. He did so without first exhausting the administrative remedies available to him at Smithfield. Because of this failure to exhaust his administrative remedies, the District Court dismissed his action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).
As amended by the PLRA, § 1997e(a) provides that “[n]o action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in,any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.” 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) (amended by Pub.L. 104-134, Title I, § 101(a), 110 Stat. 1321-71 (1996)). The first question raised by Booth’s appeal concerns the applicability of § 1997e(a) to § 1983 excessive force actions; i.e., whether excessive force is a “prison condition” for purposes of the PLRA. This important and difficult question is a matter of first impression for this court. Booth contends that § 1997e(a)’s “action ... with respect to prison conditions” language applies only to complaints about the physical conditions in prisons, and does not apply to his § 1983 excessive force action. Therefore, he concludes, the District Court erred in analyzing his action under § 1997e(a). We reject this argument and hold that § 1997e(a) applies to excessive force actions. We base this decision on the plain meaning of the language of the PLRA, case law from our sister circuits, and recent Supreme Court precedent interpreting similar prisoner litigation legislation.
The second question raised by Booth’s appeal has to do with the application of § 1997e(a)’s exhaustion requirement. Booth argues that even if § 1997e(a) applies to his action, exhaustion would have been futile, because the available administrative process could not provide him with the monetary relief he seeks. Accordingly, he contends, his failure to exhaust such procedures is not mandated by § 1997e(a), which only requires the exhaustion of administrative remedies “as are available.”
Our recent decision in Nyhuis v. Reno, 204 F.3d 65, 78 (3d Cir.2000), rejected this argument. Nyhuis was a Bivens action brought by a federal inmate, in which we held that “the PLRA amended § 1997e(a) in such a way as to make exhaustion of all administrative remedies mandatory— whether or not they provide the inmate-plaintiff with the relief he says he desires in his federal action.” Id. at 67. The reasoning of Nyhuis applies equally in the § 1983 context, as § 1997e(a) treats Bivens actions and § 1983 actions as functional equivalents. Nyhuis is therefore controlling in this case.
Accordingly, even though this is an excessive force action, and even though the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s inmate grievance process could not provide Booth with the money damages he sought, we hold that Booth was required by § 1997e(a) to exhaust the administrative remedies available to him prior to filing this action. Because he admittedly has not done so, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.1
I.
On April 21, 1997, Booth began this action in the District Court, using a form provided by the court to prisoners filing pro se complaints under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He named Corrections Officer Churner, Sergeant Workensher, Lieutenant Rikus, and Captain W. Gardner as defendants. He stated that he had presented the facts of the case in the state prisoner grievance [292]*292procedure and that Ms allegations were “dismissed or covered up.” He added, “There isn’t any help because of retaliation because I spoke up about abuse and corruption.” In the space provided for “Parties” he added Superintendent Morgan to the list of defendants. In the space labeled “Statement of Claim” he wrote nothing. In the space labeled “Relief’ he asked both for a “preliminary injunction,” and for a “protection order for transfer to another prison as my safety and life is at stake.”
In a handwritten document filed with his form complaint, Booth alleged the following facts, which gave rise to his § 1983 action. He first complained that, in April 1996, he had been “assaulted by a Sgt Robinson and a C/O named Thomas.... ” As a result of that assault, he alleges, he has “a shoulder that slips in and out.” Subsequent to that incident, he contends, he was denied an operation on his shoulder with “deliberate indifference to [his] shoulder and back.” Booth next averred that on February 6, 1997, he threw water on Corrections Officer Thomas, who then took him to a storage room and threw a cup of cleaning material in his face.
Booth further claimed that on February 7, 1997, after an exchange of words with Lieutenant Rikus, Rikus shoved him into the shelf in the storage room and Thomas pushed him into a door, while Sergeant White looked on. He alleges that shortly thereafter he was taken back to his cell, where Thomas tightened and twisted his handcuffs in such a way that bruised his wrists. Booth last complained that, on March 23, 1997, Corrections Officer Churner punched him in the face and mouth, while Sergeant Workensher and Corrections Officer Kulian watched. As a result, he contends, his mouth “was busted open” and he received three stitches. Booth ended this narrative, “I need out of this jail before they kill me. And I want each and every officer to be punished for assaulting me. Please, I’m in fear of my life.”
In a document dated May 19, 1997, he petitioned “To Show Cause for Appointment of Counsel, To Keep Top Officials as Defendants, Amending Relief Plaintiff Seeks.” In this petition, he asked for “an injunction to stop the continuous beating,” an order “to get operation,” a transfer to another prison, and “money damages $750,000 (permanent damages).” In later paragraphs, he again asked for an injunction, a transfer, and for money damages in different amounts; he also asked for an order to improve the prison law library and to fine prison officials for contempt of court, for an order to hire paralegal assistance for himself, and for “money damages $300,000.” In “Plaintiffs Amendment to Specific Relief,” filed the next day, he asked for a protective order to be transferred to another jail, appointment of counsel, a pretrial hearing, a disclosure order for prison records, and $400,000 for “nominal, punitive, exemplary, and compensatory” damages.
The District Court, acting sua sponte and without requiring an answer from the Defendants, dismissed Booth’s action without prejudice on May 30, 1997, as it had the power to do under 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(c). The rationale for the Court’s order was that Booth had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) before filing his § 1983 action. The Court observed that at the time Booth filed his action the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections had a three-step grievance procedure. Booth had taken the first step in the process but made no showing that he had taken the second and third steps, which required that he appeal the decision reached by the prison officials in the first step.2 The [293]*293court concluded that as Booth had not exhausted his available remedies, dismissal was required by § 1997e(a). In reaching this conclusion, the District Court assumed, without discussion, that Booth’s excessive force action was governed by § 1997e(a).
On June 9, 1997, Booth moved for reconsideration of this order. On July 3, the District Court denied this motion. Booth moved to amend his complaint, and on July 17, 1997, this motion was “dismissed as moot, as plaintiffs case was closed on May 30,1997.” Booth thereafter appealed. The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. We have appellate jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.3
II.
We first examine whether the words “action ... with respect to prison conditions” in § 1997e(a) were intended to apply to excessive force actions such as Booth’s. Section 1997e(a) provides that
[n]o action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.
[294]*29442 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) (emphasis added). Booth argues that his § 1983 excessive force action is not governed by § 1997e(a) for three reasons. First, he contends that the words “prison conditions” simply cannot be read to include a prison guard’s intentional act of violence. Second, he argues that, when one reads the PLRA and its legislative history as a whole, there is no basis to conclude that § 1997e(a) was meant to reference claims of excessive force. Third, Booth points to two recent Supreme Court cases, in which the Court has drawn a line between excessive force actions, which involve intentional acts of violence, and conditions-of-confinement actions, which do not. Booth submits that, in enacting the PLRA, Congress evinced no intent to disturb this distinction when it employed the “prison conditions” language it did in § 1997e(a). We take up these arguments in turn.
A.
We would normally begin our analysis of § 1997e(a) by looking to the plain meaning of the words “action ... with respect to prison conditions” that Congress employed in drafting that section. Congress, however, defined the term “civil action with respect to prison conditions” in another section of the PLRA, 18 U.S.C. § 3626(g)(2), and thus spared us from that inquiry, see Freeman v. Francis, 196 F.3d 641, 644 (6th Cir.1999) (holding that “the scope of § 1997e(a)’s exhaustion requirement is determined by the definition of a 'civil action with respect to prison conditions’ as set forth in § 3626(g)(2)”).
To borrow from the Supreme Court in Sullivan v. Stroop, “[t]he substantial relation between the two[provisions in the PLRA] presents a classic case for application of the normal rule of statutory construction that identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning.” 496 U.S. 478, 484, 110 S.Ct. 2499, 110 L.Ed.2d 438 (1990) (citations and internal quotations omitted). The PLRA not only amended 42 U.S.C. § 1997e to include various limitations on actions such as the mandatory exhaustion requirement in § 1997e(a), it also created 18 U.S.C. § 3626, which in many subsections, prevents federal courts from ordering broad prospective relief in “any civil action with respect to prison conditions.” Like § 1997e, § 3626 curbs the extent to which federal prison litigation interferes with the states’ and the federal government’s administration of their own prisons. Because these two sections of the PLRA are directed toward similar ends and are thus substantially related, it follows from the canon of interpretation invoked in Stroop that the identical terms used in the two sections should be read as conveying the same meaning. See Freeman, 196 F.3d at 644.
Section 3626(g)(2) provides that
the term “civil action with respect to prison conditions” means any civil proceeding arising under Federal law with respect to the conditions of confinement or the effects of actions by government officials on the lives of persons confined in prison, but does not include habeas corpus proceedings challenging the fact or duration of confinement in prison.
18 U.S.C. § 3626(g)(2) (emphasis added).
As a matter of common sense, we understand the “conditions of confinement” language preceding the “or” to include complaints such as those regarding cell overcrowding, poor prison construction, inadequate medical facilities, and incomplete law libraries. Put differently, actions arising under this clause relate to the environment in which prisoners live, the physical conditions of that environment, and the nature of the services provided therein. Booth’s allegations that prison guards used excessive force against him do not naturally fall into this class of actions.
Booth’s action does, however, fit neatly into the language in § 3626(g)(2) following the “or,” which refers to any civil action with respect to “the effects of actions by [295]*295government officials on the lives of persons confined in prison.” 18 U.S.C. § 3626(g)(2). We read this clause to refer to, civil actions ranging from excessive force actions, such as Booth’s, to actions “with respect to” a prison official’s decision not to make basic repairs in the prison, or intentionally to deny a prisoner food, heating, or medical attention. All of these actions affect the lives of prisoners similarly: They make their lives worse.
B.
This common sense reading of the language in § 3626(g)(2) comports with the manner in which the Supreme Court has read similar language in statutes dealing with prison litigation. In McCarthy v. Bronson, 500 U.S. 136,137, 111 S.Ct. 1737, 114 L.Ed.2d 194 (1991), the Court was faced with a similar provision in a prison litigation statute, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B), which authorized the nonconsensyal reference to magistrate judges of “prisoner petitions challenging conditions of confinement.” In ruling on the scope of § 636(b)(1)(B), the unanimous Court interpreted the section’s “conditions of confinement” language — one half of the definition of “prison conditions” in § 3626(g)(2) — to include all inmate petitions, "not only those regarding “continuous conditions,” but “isolated episodes of unconstitutional conduct,” such as the petitioner’s claim of excessive force, as well. McCarthy, 500 U.S. at 139, 111 S.Ct. 1737. In reaching this conclusion, the Court wrote:
We do not quarrel with petitioner’s claim that the most natural reading of the phrase “challenging conditions of confinement,” when viewed in isolation, would not include suits seeking relief from isolated episodes of unconstitutional conduct. However, statutory language must always be read in its proper context....
The text of the statute does not define the term “conditions of confinement” or contain any language suggesting that prisoner petitions should be divided into subcategories. On the contrary, when the relevant section is read in its entirety, it suggests that Congress intended to authorize the nonconsensual reference of all prisoner petitions to a magistrate.
Id. at 139, 111 S.Ct. 1737 (citations omitted) (emphasis added).
As compared to the statute in McCarthy, Congress, in the PLRA, made its intent to subject all prisoner actions (save for habeas petitions) to § 1997e(a)’s exhaustion requirements even more clear. It did so by employing the language it did in § 3626(g)(2). In § 3626(g)(2), Congress included both the “conditions of confinement” language, which was enough in McCarthy to encompass all prisoner petitions, and the “effects of actions by government officials” language, which, on natural reading, more closely refers to isolated, episodes of unconstitutional conduct at the hands of prison officials — such as the instances of unconstitutional excessive force alleged in the case at bar. The addition of the language in § 3626(g)(2) avoids the plain meaning problem with the statute at issue in McCarthy, and it clarifies Congress’s intent to subject all inmate actions to the PLRA’s exhaustion requirement.
The context of the PLRA supports this conclusion. The PLRA was plainly intended, at least in part, to “reduce the intervention of federal courts into the management of the nation’s prison systems.” Freeman v. Francis, 196 F.3d 641, 644 (6th Cir.1999). Congress would only undermine this objective by carving out certain types of actions from the aegis of the PLRA. Therefore, we believe that the expansive and somewhat overlapping language Congress employed in § 3626(g)(2) must be read — naturally and in its proper context — to encompass all prisoner petitions.
The only court of appeals explicitly to address the question agrees with our conclusion. Relying on McCarthy and the definition of “action with respect to prison [296]*296conditions” in § 3626(g)(2), the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held “that the term ‘prison conditions’ as used in § 1997e includes claims of excessive force....” Freeman, 196 F.3d at 644. The Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Tenth Circuits have implicitly reached the same conclusion — that excessive force actions are “prison conditions” actions and subject to the exhaustion requirements set forth in § 1997e(a) — without discussing the precise argument raised by Booth and adopted by the dissent. See Wendell v. Asher, 162 F.3d 887, 889, 891-92 (5th Cir.1998) (applying § 1997e(a)’s exhaustion requirement to inmate-plaintiffs excessive force claim); Garrett v. Hawk, 127 F.3d 1263, 1264-66 (10th Cir.1997) (same).4 In the margin, we respond, in part, to the dissent’s adoption of Booth’s position.5
[297]*297C.
Booth attempts to buttress his reading of § 1997e(a) by pointing to Supreme Court precedent that has drawn a distinction between excessive force claims and prison condition claims. When pressed by logic, however, this argument proves as brittle as the analysis it was erected to support.
A familiar maxim of statutory construction provides that “ ‘[w]here Congress uses terms that have accumulated settled meaning under either equity or the common law, a court must infer, unless the statute otherwise dictates, that Congress means to incorporate the established meaning of these terms.’ ” United States v. Rosero, 42 F.Sd 166, 171 (3d Cir.1994) (quoting NLRB v. Amax Coal Co., 453 U.S. 322, 329, 101 S.Ct. 2789, 69 L.Ed.2d 672 (1981)). Invoking this maxim, Booth cites two recent Supreme Court cases in which the Court distinguished between conditions-of-confinement claims and excessive force claims, and treated the two types of claims differently. See Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994); Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 9, 112 S.Ct. 995, 117 L.Ed.2d 156 (1992).6 From the distinction drawn by the Court in Farmer and Hudson, Booth reasons that if Congress intended to eliminate that distinction in § 1997e(a) between excessive force and prison condition claims it would have made its intentions explicit.
There are four things wrong with this argument. First, and most obvious, Congress made its intentions clear regarding what “actions with respect to prison conditions” meant in § 1997e(a), by defining that term expressly and expansively in § 3626(g)(2). Congress’s explicit language in the PLRA, therefore, obviates the need to resort to the maxim. See NLRB, 453 U.S. at 329, 101 S.Ct. 2789.
Second, if we were to ignore the import of § 3626(g)(2)’s definition and apply the maxim based on language in Farmer and Hudson, we would ignore the difference in the nature of the power allocated to the courts and Congress in our tripartite federal system. As Judge Mukasey noted in his forceful opinion in Beeson v. Fishkill Correctional Facility, which held that § 1997e(a) applied to excessive force claims, “a court’s responsibility in reading § 1997e is to determine the intent of Congress when it referred to ‘prison conditions’ in the statute, not the intent of the Supreme Court when it used a similar, but not identical, term in a case decided before the statute was passed.” 28 F.Supp.2d 884, 890 (S.D.N.Y.1998) (referring to Farmer and Hudson).
Third, there is- no evidence, other than the Court’s use of similar language in Farmer and in Hudson, that the term “prison conditions” has a well-settled meaning, firmly established in the annals of the common law. In fact, Farmer and Hudson refer to “conditions of confinement” claims, not “prison conditions” claims.7 The difference between the terms [298]*298of art invoked in Farmer and Hudson and in this case makes resort to maxim even more unreliable.
Fourth, as evidenced by the Supreme Court’s opinion in McCarthy, the phrase “conditions of confinement,” which Booth would have us equate with the phrase “prison conditions,” is not so commonly understood. In McCarthy — which was decided near the time that Farmer and Hudson were, but prior to the PLRA’s enactment — the Supreme Court had to interpret the phrase “petitions challenging conditions of confinement” in 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B). As noted above, the Court read the phrase to include challenges not only to ongoing prison conditions, but also to isolated episodes of allegedly unconstitutional conduct by prison officials, such as assault. See id. at 141-43, 111 S.Ct. 1737. Judge Mukasey put it well in Beeson when he wrote, “the Court [in McCarthy] made absolutely no mention of the supposedly familiar distinction between excessive force claims and conditions of confinement claims, despite effectively being presented with the issue squarely.” 28 F.Supp.2d at 891 (citation omitted). The fact that the terms “prison conditions” and “conditions of confinement” seem to have different meanings in different contexts again makes invocation of the maxim of interpretation inappropriate.
With Farmer and Hudson cast in their proper light, we are confident in holding that § 1997e(a)’s exhaustion requirement does apply to excessive force claims.8 As we hold that Booth’s § 1983 excessive force action is governed by § 1997e(a), we turn our attention to whether § 1997e(a)’s exhaustion requirement bars it. Before doing so, we address (in the margin) another argument advanced by the dissent in support of Booth’s reading of the “prison conditions” language in the PLRA.9
[299]*299III.
Turning our attention to the application of § 1997e(a) to Booth’s action, Booth concedes that he did not take full advantage of the administrative procedures available to him at Smithfield. After he was allegedly assaulted by the Defendants, he filed several administrative grievances with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections Consolidated Inmate Grievance System (the Inmate Grievance System). When his requests for relief were denied, however, he failed to appeal those decisions as was his right under the Inmate Grievance System. See supra note 2 (discussing the two-stage appellate process). Again, § 1997e(a) provides that
No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.
42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) (emphasis added).
Booth reads this language to mean that he did not need to take advantage of the Inmate Grievance System’s administrative procedures because they could not provide him with the monetary relief that he sought in his federal action. For this proposition he cites, among other cases, Whitley v. Hunt, 158 F.3d 882 (5th Cir.1998), Lunsford v. Jumao-As, 155 F.3d 1178 (9th Cir.1998), and Garrett v. Hawk, 127 F.3d 1263 (10th Cir.1997). These cases hold that when a prison’s internal grievance procedure cannot provide an inmate-plaintiff with the pure money damages relief he seeks in his federal action, exhaustion of those administrative remedies would be futile.10
[300]*300Our recent opinion in Nyhuis v. Reno, 204 F.3d 65, 72 (3d Cir.2000), rejected the narrow futility exception recognized in Whitley, Lunsford, and Garrett; and the rule announced in Nyhuis is dispositive in this case. In Nyhuis, we held that “the PLRA amended § 1997e(a) in such a way as to make exhaustion of all administrative remedies mandatory — whether or not they provide the inmate-plaintiff with the relief he says he desires in his federal action.” Id. at 67. In a lengthy opinion, we detailed the many arguments supporting our position, and ultimately rejected the approach taken by courts recognizing the futility exception. See id. at 71-78.
Although Nyhuis involved a Bivens action brought by a federal inmate, the rule we announced in Nyhuis has equal force in the § 1983 context, for § 1997e(a), which applies to actions brought by a prisoner “under section 1983 of this title, or any other federal law,” treats Bivens actions and § 1983 actions as functional equivalents. See Nyhuis, 204 F.3d at 68; Lavista v. Beeler, 195 F.3d 254, 256 (6th Cir.1999); Alexander v. Hawk, 159 F.3d 1321, 1324-25 (11th Cir.1998); Garrett v. Hawk, 127 F.3d 1263, 1264-66 (10th Cir.1997). Indeed, the Nyhuis rule has even greater force with respect to § 1983 actions. First, as we explained in Nyhuis, additional comity considerations obtain in the § 1983 context — which are not implicated by a Bivens action — given the strength of the interest that state prisons’ and state courts’ have in resolving • complaints filed by state prisoners. See Nyhuis, 204 F.3d at 76 n. 11 (citing Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 491-92, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973) (discussing these comity concerns)).
Second, additional federalism and efficiency considerations are implicated when reviewing § 1983 actions — as corn-pared to Bivens actions — because of the greater difficulty federal courts may have in interpreting and/or predicting the contours of state law and state administrative regulations and practices. See id. at 75 n. 10 and accompanying text. As we noted in Nyhuis, the Supreme Court has “made it clear that ‘in the absence of a plain indication to the contrary,’ Congress should not be understood to ‘mak[e] the application of[a] federal act dependent on state law.’ ” Id. at 75 n. 10 (quoting Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holy field, 490 U.S. 30, 43, 109 S.Ct. 1597, 104 L.Ed.2d 29 (1989)) (emphasis added by Nyhuis) (citations and internal quotations omitted). In drafting the PLRA, “Congress gave no indication — let alone a ‘plain indication’— that application of § 1997e(a) should depend on the vagaries of state law.” Id. For these reasons, we therefore hold that the rule we announced in Nyhuis applies here.
As in Nyhuis, because Booth “failed ... to exhaust his available administrative remedies (rather than those he believed would be effective)” before filing his § 1983 action; the District Court appropriately dismissed his action without prejudice. Id. at 78. Accordingly, the order of the District Court will be affirmed.