Cite as: 511 U. S. 825 (1994)
Blackmun, J., concurring
ity that "intent simply is not very meaningful when considering a challenge to an institution, such as a prison system," Wilson, 501 U. S., at 310 (White, J., concurring in judgment). It also, however, demonstrated a commitment to the principles underlying the Eighth Amendment. The Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause was not adopted to protect prison officials with arguably benign intentions from lawsuits. The Eighth Amendment guarantees each prisoner that reasonable measures will be taken to ensure his safety. Where a prisoner can prove that no such reasonable steps were taken and, as a result, he experienced severe pain or suffering without any penological justification, the Eighth Amendment is violated regardless of whether there is an easily identifiable wrongdoer with poor intentions.
II
Though I believe Wilson v. Seiter should be overruled, and disagree with the Court's reliance upon that case in defining the "deliberate indifference" standard, I nonetheless join the Court's opinion. Petitioner never challenged this Court's holding in Wilson or sought reconsideration of the theory upon which that decision is based. More importantly, the Court's opinion does not extend Wilson beyond its ill-conceived boundaries or erect any new obstacles for prison inmates to overcome in seeking to remedy cruel and unusual conditions of confinement. The Court specifically recognizes that "[h]aving incarcerated 'persons [with] demonstrated proclivities for criminally antisocial and, in many cases, violent conduct,' [and] having stripped them of virtually every means of self-protection and foreclosed their access to outside aid, the government and its officials are not free to let the state of nature take its course." Ante, at 833. The Court further acknowledges that prison rape is not constitutionally tolerable, see ante, at 834 ("Being violently assaulted in prison is simply not 'part of the penalty that criminal offenders pay for their offenses against society' "), and it
857
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