United States Ninth Circuit

Under certain circumstances, dangerous prison working conditions can give rise to an Eighth Amendment claim, notwithstanding the fact that a prisoner initially obtained his specific employment assignment through a voluntary application process within the prison system. Further, a prison official is not entitled to qualified immunity when he orders a prisoner to continue operating prison work equipment that the official has been warned and has reason to believe is unnecessarily dangerous. (Amended opinion)

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/03/2006
• Decided 11/30/2006
• Published 11/30/2006

Judges

• CLIFTON, Circuit Judge., Before REINHARDT, McKEOWN, and CLIFTON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Christine O. Gregoire, Attorney General;  John C. Dittman (argued), Assistant Attorney General, Olympia, WA, for the appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Timothy K. Ford (argued), Katrin E. Frank, Cristobal Joshua Alex, Seattle, WA, for the appellee.