Abstract
This Note examines Walton v. Dawson, a recent Eighth Circuit decision that considers whether jail officials should be held accountable when an inmate-on-inmate sexual assault occurs and the assault was directly facilitated by the failure of the officials’ subordinates to follow the jailhouse policy of locking cell doors overnight. Parts II and III introduce the facts and holding of Walton and the legal context within which an analysis of the instant case may be framed. Part IV synthesizes the court’s rationale in the Walton decision with the established legal context. Finally, Part V discusses Walton’s foreseeable impact on future deliberate indifference claims. This Note argues that the Eighth Circuit should adopt an objective standard when reviewing claims of deliberate indifference brought by pretrial detainees against jail officials
Recommended Citation
Blair A. Bopp,
Setting a Better Standard: Evaluating Jail Officials’ Constitutional Duties in Preventing the Sexual Assault of Pretrial Detainees,
80 Mo. L. Rev.
(2015)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol80/iss2/8