Does a prison officer have a duty to protect an inmate from violence at the hands of other inmates?

Prison officials have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect inmates from violence at the hands of other prisoners. See, e.g., Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 833 (1994). To establish a violation of this duty, the prisoner must establish that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to serious threats to an inmate's safety. Id. at 834.

In this case, plaintiff alleges that defendants told other inmates that he was gay and in protective custody, which plaintiff claims endangered him; however, plaintiff has not alleged that he has actually been injured by other inmates, nor has he alleged that defendants were aware that their actions exposed plaintiff to a substantial risk of serious harm. See Morgan v. MacDonald, 41 F.3d 1291, 1293-94 (9th Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 515 U.S. 1148 (1995). Plaintiff has accordingly failed to allege a colorable Eighth Amendment endangerment claim.