Opinion ID: 2818271
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Unsanitary Showers

Text: Brauner also complains about the state of the showers and the irregularity of his bed bathing. The magistrate judge cited the undisputed testimony of the doctors and a non-defendant nurse, who testified that the showers were cleaned twice a day with bleach, that Brauner was given a disinfectant spray bottle for his personal use, and that Brauner was permitted to enter the showers before the other prisoners so that he could clean himself without interference. Further, Brauner was permitted to bathe in his bed and often did so. The magistrate judge also found that Brauner “presented no 8 Case: 14-30801 Document: 00513120625 Page: 9 Date Filed: 07/17/2015 No. 14-30801 competent summary judgment evidence to rebut the defendants’ evidence” and had not demonstrated how the “purported conditions pose any significant risk to him[.]” Brauner cites a long list of days on which he was allegedly not cleaned, but it is difficult to know what to make of the records he cites, in part because it is not clear that the bathing records are exhaustive. It is undisputed that at no point was Brauner prohibited from using the showers. Even if Brauner’s facts are taken as true, the most that can be said is that the prison failed to maintain perfectly germ-free showers, which is not cruel and unusual punishment. Prison policy was for the showers to be cleaned twice a day with bleach. Brauner’s attempt to use this policy to show defendants’ knowledge of the “unsanitary conditions” is perplexing. Brauner asserted that a nurse told him not to use the showers “with your open wounds like that” because no amount of cleaning would “kill what’s in that shower.” Putting aside possible hearsay problems in this testimony, it shows only that a nurse had opinions about the prison’s ability to maintain the showers and was concerned enough about Brauner to advise him to avoid using them. The evidence, again, does not rise to the level of deliberate indifference.