Under Farmer, the official must know of and disregard an excessive risk, requiring both awareness of facts supporting an inference of risk and actually drawing that inference. Negligence and even gross negligence do not suffice.
The standard is subjective for Eighth Amendment claims.
Alternative Names:
Deliberate Indifference Standard|Subjective Recklessness
Why it Matters?
Subjective awareness is what defeats most of these claims, since establishing that an official actually knew of the specific risk is substantially harder than showing they should have known, and medical records documenting what was reported and observed are the evidence. Kingsley applied an objective standard to pretrial detainee force claims, and circuits divide on whether that extends to detainee medical care claims.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What defeats most claims?
Does the standard differ for detainees?
