Burrell v. Hampshire County.

U.S. Appeals Court

PRETRIAL DETAINEE 

SEPARATION

Burrell v. Hampshire County, 307 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2002). A pretrial detainee who was severely beaten by a fellow detainee brought a [section] 1983 action against a county and county officials, alleging deliberate indifference to his health and safety in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The detainee also alleged an Eighth Amendment violation resutling from failure to segregate violent and nonviolent detainees. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants and the appeals court affirmed. The detainee had told one jail official that he was threatened by a fellow detainee who had a history of assaults, but the officials failed to separate them. The court noted that the plaintiff told one official he had a black belt in martial arts and was a decorated war hero and never requested protective custody. The court found that the county's policy of not screening or segregating potentially violent inmates from non-violent ones did not constitute deliberate indifference to the health and safety of detainees, because inmates were housed in single cells and were able to lock their cells from the inside at any time. (Hampshire County Jail/House of Corrections, Massachusetts)