U.S. district court prisoner on prisoner assault.

• Position: Failure to Protect - Brief Article

Canell v. Multnomah County, 141 F.Supp.2d 1046 (D.Or. 2001). An inmate brought a [section] 1983 action alleging that his conditions of confinement in a county jail violated his constitutional rights. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants. The district court held that the inmate did not suffer a constitutionally significant injury, sufficient to support a [section] 1983 action under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), as the result of jail officials' failure to shower and "debug" inmates or test them for communicable diseases before double bunking them and m g them with the general population. The inmate's alleged injuries consisted of toe fungus, occasional constipation, brief denials of food, sanitation, and water, nose sores, and cold winter temperatures. The court found that the inmate's exposure to a cellmate suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) did not violate his rights, even though he was splashed in the eye with vomit from the cellmate, where the inma te had not since been tested as HIV positive. According to the court, the inmate's fear that his cellmates might attack him did not support a [section] 1983 action even...