Charges that a corrections officer sexually abused two inmates and violated a constitutional amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment have been restored by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Clarifying its standard for Eighth Amendment violations in prison sex abuse cases—and making a strong statement on prison assault—the circuit reversed a lower court judge, saying he had dismissed the action by construing Second Circuit precedent “too narrowly.”

Judges Robert Katzmann, John Walker and Gerard Lynch decided the appeal in Crawford v. Cuomo, 14-969, where inmates James Crawford and Thaddeus Corley alleged they were abused by corrections officer Simon Prindle at the Eastern Correctional Facility.