Inmate Welfare Checks

SAN FRANCISCO — Pelican Bay State Prison officials are entitled to immunity in a civil rights dispute arising over the implementation of round-the-clock welfare checks to prevent inmate suicides, a federal judge in California ruled. A prisoner claims officers on their rounds created noise that deprived him of sleep, but the officers would not have understood the creating additional noise while carrying out the court-ordered checks “clearly violated” prisoners’ constitutional rights. 

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