The Supreme Court has ruled a Texas inmate can sue six officers
Trent Michael Taylor's suit is against six officers at the John T Montford Psychiatric facility in Lubbock. He was transferred to a psychiatric unit. The suit claims that in September of 2013 he was stripped naked and forced for six days into what his petition calls shockingly unsanitary cells. His attorney Elizabeth Crookshank says instead of getting psychiatric treatment, Taylor was stripped naked "and put in a cell that was completely covered in human fecal matter from prior residents. Floors, walls, ceiling and even stuffed inside the faucet where he was supposed to get his water."
She says Taylor didn't eat or drink for four days for fear of being contaminated. She says he was then transferred to a cell referred to as a cold room because it was kept at freezing temperatures. "Still naked with only a suicide blanket to keep him warm. This cell had not furniture and no toilet, only a backed up drain that was already overflowing with waste onto the floor. He had to sleep on the floor in human waste."
She say she can't speak to the mind set of the guards, but says there's a lot of dehumanization that happens around people who are incarcerated. "It is not uncommon for people who work in prison facilities to just stop thinking of incarcerated individuals as fully human and possessing full human dignity."
The High Court's decision overturns one from the Fifth Circuit court of Appeals. That panel ruled the officers were public officials and protected because they didn't have fair warning their specific acts were unconstitutional.
