Purcell ex rel. Estate of Morgan v. Toombs County.

U.S. Appeals Court

PRISONER ON PRISONER ASSAULT

STAFFING

Purcell ex rel. Estate of Morgan v. Toombs County, 400 F.3d 1313 (11th Cir. 2005). The mother of a county jail inmate who died after he was beaten and injured by three other inmates brought a [section] 1983 action against a sheriff and jail administrator. The district court denied qualified immunity for the defendants, and Eleventh Amendment immunity for the sheriff, and they appealed. The appeals court reversed. The court held that the conditions at the county jail did not pose a "substantial risk of serious harm" as required to show an Eighth Amendment violation. The inmate was beaten by three other inmates in his cell over an alleged money dispute. Inmates were allowed to keep money in their cells, play cards and gamble, the jail had a history of inmate-on-inmate assaults, and the jail's layout presented some difficulty in the continuous observation of inmates. But the court noted that inmates were segregated based on particularized factors, including the kind of crime committed and personal conflicts, the jail was not understaffed at the time of the attack, serious inmate-on-inmate violence was not the norm, fights that did occur were not linked to any recurring specific cause, and jailers had a history of punishing inmate violence. At the time of the incident the jail held 118 inmates and was staffed at normal levels, having five officers on duty. The sheriff had directed that a new commissary system be instituted to manage inmate funds so that inmates would not have to keep money on their persons, but the system had not been put in place by the day of the incident. (Toombs County Jail, Georgia)