Jackson v. Goord’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under the objective element of the test, the measure of a “sufficiently- serious” deprivation is “contextual and responsive to contemporary standards of decency.” ... “[F]or a claim ... based on a failure to prevent harm, the inmate must show that he is incarcerated under conditions posing a substantial risk of serious harm.” A prisoner need not show actual injury, as “the Eighth Amendment protects against sufficiently imminent dangers as well as current unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain and suffering.” ... [T]he Eighth Amendment inquiry in plaintiffs case focuses on the danger posed by the material itself — that is, whether the nature and levels of plaintiffs exposure to toxic or noxious substances was such as to pose “an unreasonable risk” of serious damage to the health of any inmate exposed to it. This requires a fact-finder to assess the seriousness of the potential harm and the likelihood that such injury to health will actually be caused by exposure to [the toxin] ... [and] whether society considers the risk that the prisoner complains of to be so grave that it violates contemporary standards of decency to expose anyone unwillingly to such a risk.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 954 F. Supp. 2d 227 - Florio v. Canty

2. “Under the subjective test, a prison official must act with “ ‘deliberate indifference’ to inmate health or safety.” This means that “a prison official must know of and disregard an excessive risk to inmate health or safety; the official must ... be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that substantial risk of serious harm exists, ... draw the inference and fail to take reasonable measures to abate it.” This element “entails something more than mere negligence ... but something less than acts or omissions for the very purpose of causing harm or with knowledge that harm will result.” Plaintiff need not show actual knowledge of the risk of harm, but rather can present [] evidence showing that a substantial risk ... was longstanding, pervasive, well-documented, or expressly noted by prison officials in the past, and the circumstances suggest that the defendant-official being sued had been exposed to information concerning the risk and thus must have known about it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 954 F. Supp. 2d 227 - Florio v. Canty