Ingles v. Toro Nunez v. City of New York |

The Standard

The Eighth Amendment protects prisoners from cruel and unusual punishment by prison officials. To state an Eighth Amendment claim, a prisoner must allege two elements, one subjective and one objective. First, the prisoner must allege that the defendant acted with a subjectively "sufficiently culpable state of mind." Second, he must allege that the conduct was objectively "harmful enough" or "sufficiently serious" to reach constitutional dimensions. Analysis of the objective prong is "context specific," and "depends upon the claim at issue." Although not "every malevolent touch by a prison guard gives rise to a federal cause of action," the Eighth Amendment is offended by conduct that is "repugnant to the conscience of mankind." Actions are repugnant to the conscience of mankind if they are 'incompatible with evolving standards of decency' or involve "the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain.”

Crawford v. Cuomo pretrial Kingsley v. Hendrickson Id. Id. Kingsley Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. of the City of N.Y. Ingles Nunez Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics Bivens See Ziglar v. Abbasi |

What Plaintiffs' Lawyers Look for in Prison Brutality Cases

Monell |

Conclusion

Ilann M. Maazel is a partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady.