Just because a prison inmate volunteers for a plum job, that doesn’t mean he can be forced to keep working if conditions are dangerous.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed an inmate’s civil rights suit to go forward Friday, ruling that guards who supervise voluntary work programs cannot claim qualified immunity when they order prisoners to use equipment known to be dangerous. The unanimous ruling rejected the summary judgment motion from a Washington state prison guard who was managing the prison print shop when an inmate had his right thumb torn off by a defective printing press.
