The following excerpt is from Patrick v. Petroff, Case No. 1:16-cv-00945-AWI-MJS (PC) (E.D. Cal. 2016):
Prison officials have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect inmates from physical abuse at the hands of other inmates. Farmer, 511 U.S. at 833. To establish a violation of this duty, the prisoner must establish that prison officials were "deliberately indifferent" to serious threats to the inmate's safety. Id. at 834. To demonstrate that a prison official was deliberately indifferent to a serious threat to the inmate's safety, the prisoner must show that "the official [knew] of and disregard[ed] an excessive risk to inmate . . . safety; the official must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and [the official] must also draw the inference." Id. at 837; Anderson v. County of Kern, 45 F.3d 1310, 1313 (9th Cir. 1995).
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