Cruel and Unusual Punishment Imposed by Federal Correctional Officers

• The Eighth Amendment Cruel and Unusual Punishment
• A Bivens Remedy for Federal Prison Inmates

A “Bivens remedy” is available to a prison inmate who alleges an Eighth Amendment cruel and unusual civil suit against a federal law enforcement corrections officer.

Marcellas Hoffman was a federal prison inmate, housed at the U.S. Atwater Penitentiary.  His prison job was as a cook; assigned to the kitchen detail.  In this capacity, he proposed an improved procedure to reduce waste in the food-service department; his proposal being approved all the way up the line to the prison’s warden.  For reasons not discussed in this case decision, this pissed off a corrections officer by the name of Timothy Preston.  Hoping to get Hoffman removed from the kitchen detail, Preston is alleged to have told another correctional officer, in front of Hoffman and other prisoners, that “inmates are snitching in the staff dining hall and writing the (staff members’) names down who are not paying for meals.”  Suspecting that Preston was talking about him, Hoffman denied that he was snitching on anyone.  A heated argument between the two resulted ....