Civil Rights — Eighth Amendment — conditions of confinement

U.S. Court of Appeals
For the 7th Circuit

Civil

Civil Rights — Eighth Amendment — conditions of confinement

Slippery stairs are not sufficiently hazardous to support a prisoner’s condition of confinement claim under the Eighth Amendment.

“[W]e agree with the central point of the district court’s analysis: The hazard about which Mr. Pyles complains is not sufficiently serious to invoke the Eighth Amendment. Federal courts consistently have adopted the view that slippery surfaces and shower floors in prisons, without more, cannot constitute a hazardous condition of confinement. Accordingly, despite incorrectly holding Mr. Pyles’s complaint to a heightened pleading standard, the district court correctly dismissed this claim at screening.”

Affirmed.

14-1752 Pyles v. Fahim

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Williams, Mag. J., Ripple, J.

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