Some may not know what is too much or too little to use on inmates. In the article, Correctional Officer Excessive Use of Force: Civil Liability Under Section 1983, explains how guards can over use their power and cause harm towards inmates. Most correctional officers do not know how much force to use on inmates so they follow on the rule to use as much force that is needed in order to do their job. Even if the correctional officers harm any inmates in the process of doing their job, they would not care or get penalize because they are protected by the law. The law can protect any guards to a limit but if there is any issue on a several injury due to a guard then in most cases it would get denied and thrown away like it never happened. Correctional Officer are the superior and nobody would listen to the inmates because they are criminals and lost their freedom and rights once they broke the law. "In Hudson v. McMillian (1992), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of excessive physical force against a prisoner may constitute cruel and unusual punishment even if the prisoner does not suffer serious injury (pg.200)." This is explaining that correctional officers needs to watch out how much force they use on inmates because it can lead to cruel and unusual punishment which is conflicting with the eight amendment. Before this law, guards were able to use aggressive force on inmates whether they comply with them or not. In most cases it lead to inmates leading and not getting treated for it. This goes with female and male inmates, it did not matter who they were. If a criminal was in prison they would get the same amount of aggressive force as anybody else who was in the facility. Guards would be able to use their force to maintain order but may use too much and harm inmates in the process. The injuries that are caused by any guards would be looked as it did not happened because nobody would listen to inmates since they are locked up.
