Cite as: 523 U. S. 833 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Thus, attention to the markedly different circumstances of normal pretrial custody and high-speed law enforcement chases shows why the deliberate indifference that shocks in the one case is less egregious in the other (even assuming that it makes sense to speak of indifference as deliberate in the case of sudden pursuit). As the very term "deliberate indifference" implies, the standard is sensibly employed only when actual deliberation is practical, see Whitley v. Albers, 475 U. S., at 320,11 and in the custodial situation of a prison, forethought about an inmate's welfare is not only feasible but obligatory under a regime that incapacitates a prisoner to exercise ordinary responsibility for his own welfare.
"[W]hen the State takes a person into its custody and holds him there against his will, the Constitution imposes upon it a corresponding duty to assume some responsibility for his safety and general well-being. The rationale for this principle is simple enough: when the State by the affirmative exercise of its power so restrains an individual's liberty that it renders him unable to care for himself, and at the same time fails to provide for his basic human needs—e. g., food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and reasonable safety—it transgresses the substantive limits on state action set by the . . . Due Process Clause." DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Servs., 489 U. S., at 199-200 (citation and footnote omitted).
Nor does any substantial countervailing interest excuse the State from making provision for the decent care and protection of those it locks up; "the State's responsibility to attend
11 By "actual deliberation," we do not mean "deliberation" in the narrow, technical sense in which it has sometimes been used in traditional homicide law. See, e. g., Caldwell v. State, 84 So. 272, 276 (Ala. 1919) (noting that " 'deliberation here does not mean that the man slayer must ponder over the killing for a long time' "; rather, "it may exist and may be entertained while the man slayer is pressing the trigger of the pistol that fired the fatal shot[,] even if it be only for a moment or instant of time").
851
Page: Index Previous 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007