Opinion ID: 567270
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Requisite Level of Culpability

Text: 84 I agree with the majority that deliberate indifference is the level of culpability required to show that a pretrial detainee has been deprived of his or her right to personal security under the fourteenth amendment. The contours of this level of culpability, however, need clarification. 85 In adopting the standard of deliberate indifference, this court does not engage in a matter of mere semantics. Requiring deliberate indifference recognizes the high degree of deference owed by the courts to the informed decisions of prison officials. This standard acknowledges that prison officials, rather than the courts, are the individuals charged with making complex decisions involving a host of competing considerations, and are better capable of making these decisions. In examining the evidence, we must keep in mind: 86 [C]ourts should defer to the informed discretion of prison administrators because the realities of running a corrections institution are complex and difficult, courts are ill equipped to deal with these problems, and the management of these facilities is confided to the Executive and Legislative Branches, not the Judicial Branch. 87 Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 547 n. 29, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1878 n. 29, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). 88 Although deliberate indifference does not require an intent to deprive an individual of his or her rights, or a knowing willingness that such consequences will occur, Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 321, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 1085, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986), the standard does require a greater degree of culpability than negligence or gross negligence. To act in deliberate indifference to another's rights, a defendant must have an awareness of a high probability of harm, and yet, consciously choose to disregard the risk. See Walker v. Norris, 917 F.2d 1449, 1454 (6th Cir.1990) (actor exhibits deliberate indifference by deliberately disregarding risk after becoming aware of risk). Because a defendant will rarely admit an awareness and conscious disregard of a risk, the trier of fact must examine objective criteria. W. Keeton, Prosser and Keeton on Torts 213 (5th ed.1984); Cortes-Quinones v. Jimenez-Nettleship, 842 F.2d 556, 558 (1st Cir.) (infer actor's knowledge of risk based on magnitude of risk), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 823, 109 S.Ct. 68, 102 L.Ed.2d 45 (1988). This requires an analysis of the surrounding circumstances, which include the context in which the defendant chooses a course of action and the obviousness of the risk resulting from the defendant's conduct. I assume this method of proving deliberate indifference is what the majority refers to when stating reckless conduct is equivalent to a deliberate choice. See also Fargo v. City of San Juan Bautista, 857 F.2d 638, 642 n. 7 (9th Cir.1988) (trier of fact may infer conscious disregard from conduct). 89 Thus, to prove deliberate indifference, or a conscious decision to disregard another's rights, the context must be examined. As we stated in Berg v. Kincheloe, 794 F.2d 457 (9th Cir.1986), in applying the standard of deliberate indifference, the trier of fact must 90 consider whether, in allegedly exposing the prisoner to danger, the defendant prison official(s) were guided by considerations of safety to other inmates.... More generally, the legal standard must not be applied to an idealized vision of prison life, but to the prison as it exists, and as prison official(s) are realistically capable of influencing. 91 Id. at 462. 92 An analysis of the context in which prison officials act requires the trier of fact to recognize the turbulent environment of a prison.  'Prisons by definition, are places of involuntary confinement of persons who have a demonstrated proclivity for antisocial, criminal, and often violent conduct.'  Id. at 461 (quoting Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 526, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 3200, 82 L.Ed.2d 393 (1984)). Further, the  '[p]rison setting is, at best, tense. It is sometimes explosive, and always potentially dangerous.'  Id. (quoting Marchesani v. McCune, 531 F.2d 459, 462 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 846, 97 S.Ct. 127, 50 L.Ed.2d 117 (1976)); see also Toussaint v. McCarthy, 801 F.2d 1080, 1100 (9th Cir.1986) (in assigning inmates, officials must not only predict behavior of single inmate, but must predict behavior of entire prison population), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1069, 107 S.Ct. 2462, 95 L.Ed.2d 871 (1987). 93 Further, by adopting the standard of deliberate indifference, rather than a lesser standard of culpability, we acknowledge the broad discretion afforded prison administrators. The trier of fact, therefore, is not to reweigh the considerations affecting a choice of conduct and substitute its judgment as to the appropriate balance. If the course of conduct is affected by valid justifications in light of a risk which is not so great that a different course of conduct is mandated, the trier of fact must defer to the actor's choice of conduct. It is in this context that the evidence of the defendants' culpability must be considered.