Can a prison official be held liable under the Eighth Amendment for failing to provide adequate medical care to an inmate?
The following excerpt is from Sutherland v. Yates, Case No. 1:09 cv 02152 LJO GSA PC (E.D. Cal. 2014):
A prison official violates the Eighth Amendment only when two requirements are met. First, the deprivation must be, objectively, sufficiently serious. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 833-34 (1994). Second, the prison official must have a "sufficiently culpable state of mind," that is, one of deliberate indifference to the inmate's health or safety. Id. at 835. A prison official may be held liable under the Eighth Amendment only if he knows the inmate faces a substantial risk of serious harm and the official disregards that risk by failing to take reasonable measures to
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