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Fear Alone Doesn't Violate Eighth Amendment: No Immunity for Retaliation
Loaded on Nov. 15, 1997
published in Prison Legal News
November, 1997, page 20
The court of appeals for the seventh circuit held that a prisoner's fear of being attacked, by itself, does not violate the eighth amendment. The court also held that prison officials who retaliate against prisoners who complain about prison conditions are not entitled to qualified immunity. John Babcock, a federal …
Filed under:
Transfers,
Gang Policies,
Retaliation for Filing Grievances,
Retaliatory Transfers,
Crime/Demographics,
Informants,
Failure to Protect (General),
Eighth Amendment,
Damages,
Qualified Immunity.
Locations:
Illinois,
Indiana.
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More from this issue:
- Private Transportation Firms Take Prisoners for a Ride, by Alex Friedmann
- Escaped Prisoner Rides into Sunset
- Tensions Rise in Ohio Prisons
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- Notes from the Unrepenitentiary, by Laura Whitehorn
- Oklahoma Pulls Out of TX Rent-A-Jail
- DOJ to Probe Texas Rent-A-Jail
- 'Training Video' Reveals Beatings in Texas Rent-A-Jail
- ACLU and PLN Challenge Washington DOC Censorship
- Alive Today! Death Row Calling U.S.A.
- Texas Parole Case Reversed
- PLN Editor Settles Retaliation Suit
- Ohio Prison Doctor Liable in Asthma Death
- Detention and Corrections CaseLaw Catalog, by Paul Wright
- Criminal Practice Handbook, by Paul Wright
- Restoring Justice, by Dan Pens
- Civil Disabilities of Convicted Felon: A State-by-State Survey, by Jon Marc Taylor
- Texas Mandatory Release Statute Creates Liberty Interest
- A Matter of Fact
- NM Prisoners Refuse to Break Rocks
- BOP Sentence Reductions Cannot Be Denied Retroactively
- Former Prison Security Chief Convicted, by Julia Lutsky
- Attention Foreign Nationals, by A.I.C.A.P.
- Prisoner Literacy Obscure & Outdated, by Laura Whitehorn
- Sewing Our Own Destruction, by Ray Luc Levasseur
- Prisoner Calls Big Business in CA, by D.R.
- Trailers for Tana, by Art Longworth
- Electronic Guards of the Future?, by B.S.
- Exiled From Idaho, by D.M.
- Media Allowed Access to CA Executions
- PLRA Exhaustion Requirement Jurisdictional
- 3rd Cir. Applies 'Imminent Danger' Exception to PLRA 3 Strikes
- Factual Findings Required in 8th Amendment Suit
- Attica Justice -- Served 26 Years Later
- Fear Alone Doesn't Violate Eighth Amendment: No Immunity for Retaliation
- Pepper Spray Uprising in Arkansas
- Washington Officials Liable for Seizing Court Tape
- Fourth Amendment Forbids Taping of Jail Confession to Clergy
- News in Brief
More from these topics:
- Fourth Circuit Revives North Carolina Prisoner’s Suit Blaming Lazy Guards for Assault by Detainee, May 1, 2026. Failure to Protect (General), Qualified Immunity, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Deliberate Indifference.
- Texas Officials Testify That Cost to Air Condition Prisons Tops $1.5 Billion, May 1, 2026. Eighth Amendment, Exposure to Heat, Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA), Deliberate Indifference, Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA).
- $1.25 Million Paid for Special Needs Teen’s Fatal Beating in Houston Jail, May 1, 2026. Prisoner-Prisoner Assault, Failure to Protect (General), Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- Seventh Circuit Upholds Liability but Reverses Damages in Lawsuit Over Illinois Warden and Investigator Using Prisoner as Bait to Catch Staff Member Raping Her, May 1, 2026. Staff-Prisoner Assault, Failure to Protect (General), Damages, Evidentiary Ruling, Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- Guaranteed Income Helps People Leaving Jail and Prison, and That Helps Everyone, May 1, 2026. Crime/Demographics, Prisoner Privileges, housing, jobs, Restrictions, discrimination, Probation, Parole & Supervised Release, Fines.
- “Large Fight” Broke Out at Alaska Prison After Downsizing Effort, April 1, 2026. Transfers, Cost of Prison Systems, Totality of Conditions, Failure to Protect (General), Overcrowding.
- California Spends $300 Million Each Year Incarcerating Senior Citizens in Women’s Prisons, April 1, 2026. Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Totality of Conditions, Parole, Life without Parole (LWOP), Americans with Disabilities Act.
- $2.75 Million Paid by Washington County and NaphCare for Jail Detainee’s Suicide, April 1, 2026. Naphcare, Qualified Immunity, Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Suicides, Deliberate Indifference.
- D.C. Judge Blocks Transfer of Biden-Commuted Federal Death Row Prisoners to “Supermax,” Citing Lack of Meaningful Due Process, April 1, 2026. Transfers, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Fifth Amendment, Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Prison Classification.
- Five Prisoners in Georgia Injured in Fight, Two Months After Three Prisoners Were Killed, April 1, 2026. Prison/Jail Murders, Totality of Conditions, Failure to Protect (General), Staffing.

