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Civil Rights – Cruel and unusual punishment

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 10, 2012//

Civil Rights – Cruel and unusual punishment

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 10, 2012//

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Civil Rights
Cruel and unusual punishment

The infliction of pain in the course of a prison security measure, does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment even if in retrospect the degree of force was unreasonable.

“The allegations of the complaint, as elaborated in the brief, show that the guards did not violate the eighth amendment. ‘To be cruel and unusual punishment, conduct that does not purport to be punishment at all must involve more than ordinary lack of due care for the prisoner’s interests or safety. . . . It is obduracy and wantonness, not inadvertence or error in good faith, that characterize the conduct prohibited by the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause . . . . The infliction of pain in the course of a prison security measure, therefore, does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment simply because it may appear in retrospect that the degree of force authorized or applied for security purposes was unreasonable, and hence unnecessary in the strict sense.’ Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 319 (1986). See also Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 7 (1992), which poses the inquiry as ‘whether force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline, or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm.’ Paul did not use any force until Guitron disobeyed a command that was designed to maintain order within the prison; and, when Paul applied modest force, Guitron remained defiant. Paul did not violate the Constitution by applying additional force. Even if ‘it may appear in retrospect that the degree of force authorized or applied for security purposes was unreasonable’ (Whitley, 475 U.S. at 319), an error of judgment does not convert a prison security measure into a constitutional violation.”

Affirmed.

11-2718 Guitron v. Paul

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Griesbach, J., Easterbrook, J.

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