J. RANDAL HALL, District Judge.
Presently before the Court are Plaintiffs Objections to the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation dated January 29, 2015.
Plaintiff, who is currently housed at Hancock State Prison in Sparta, Georgia, filed a cause of action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to contest certain conditions of his confinement while he was housed at Smith State Prison in Glennville, Georgia. In his original Complaint and amendment thereto, Plaintiff alleged another inmate, Cordarell Cole, assaulted him and stabbed him with a sharpened piece of metal. Plaintiff asserted other inmates encouraged Cole to continue assaulting Plaintiff. Plaintiff also asserted Defendants Pauley and Hall then entered "the yard", and Defendant Pauley instructed Plaintiff and Cole to stop their actions and to put down the knife, or he was going to spray them both. (Doc. 1, p. 5.) Plaintiff averred that this assault lasted several minutes until he was able to gain control of the knife, and he received several injuries as a result.Plaintiff also asserts that he received medical attention from two (2) outside hospitals. In addition to Defendants Pauley and Hall, Plaintiff named Stanley Williams, Celia Zammy, Kathy Martin, Eric Smokes, and the Deputy Warden of Security as Defendants in this case. United States Magistrate Judge James E. Graham recommended Plaintiffs Amended Complaint be dismissed due to Plaintiffs failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. (Doc. 11.)
In response to this recommendation, Plaintiff filed another Amended Complaint. (Doc. 14.) As relevanthere, Plaintiff statedDefendant Zammyknew of the generally dangerous conditions at Smith State Prison, yet she allowed Plaintiff and Cole, who were from different dormitories, to come into contact with each other on September 1, 2012, in violation of policy and procedure. Magistrate Judge Graham ordered service of Plaintiffs Amended Complaint upon Defendants Martin, Smokes, Johnson, Pauley, and Hall based on his claims that his Eighth Amendment rights were violated. However, Magistrate Judge Graham found Plaintifffailed to state a viable Eighth Amendment claim against Defendant Zammy and recommended she be dismissed as a named Defendant. (Doc. 17, p. 4.) It is this recommendation to which Plaintiff objects.
Magistrate Judge Graham correctly set out and applied the law applicable to Plaintiffs claims, and the Court need not recite that discussion a length herein. However, the Court does address Plaintiffs objections.
In his Objections, Plaintiff asserts the assault he allegedly suffered by Cordarell Cole on September 1, 2012, stemmed from an incident he had involving Defendant Zammy on August 30, 2011. According to Plaintiff, Defendant Zammy told him on August 30, 2011, that he was holding his "private part" while looking at her. (Doc. 36, p. 1.) Plaintiff maintains he received a disciplinary report based on this incident and has had "run-ins" with Defendant Zammy since August 2011 during which she informed him she would get somebody affiliated with a gang "to see about [him] and stab [him] up." (
Plaintiff failed to set forth any facts in his Complaint, which he amended on two (2) occasions, indicating Defendant Zammy had any knowledge of a particularized threat to Plaintiffs safety. Instead, Plaintiff attempts to show Defendant Zammy's alleged knowledge for this first time in his Objections. Plaintiffs failure to raise any facts or issues prior to his Objections is an independent ground upon which to overrule his objection.
Even accepting the assertions made in Plaintiffs Objections as being made in a timely manner, he fails to set forth any facts indicating Defendant Zammy had any subjective knowledge of a particularized threat to Plaintiffs safety from Cole on September 1, 2012. Rather, Plaintiffs contentions against Defendant Zammy amount to no more than speculation. Plaintiff does not set forth any facts which establish a plausible Eighth Amendment claim against Defendant Zammy.
The Eighth Amendment's proscription against cruel and unusual punishment imposes a constitutional duty upon prison officials to take reasonable measures to guarantee the safety and health of prison inmates. "`To show a violation of [his] Eighth Amendment rights, [a p]laintiff must produce sufficient evidence of (1) a substantial risk of serious harm; (2) the defendant's] deliberate indifference to that risk; and (3) causation.'"
There is nothing before the Court indicating Defendant Zammy had any knowledge ofthe March 2012 incident between Plaintiff and Cole and acted deliberately indifferent to Plaintiffs safety by allowing Plaintiff and Cole to be in the yard together in September 2012. At most, Plaintiffs assertions allege Defendant Zammy violated the policies and/or procedures in place at Smith State Prison, but such a violation does not equate to a constitutional violation.
Plaintiff's Objections are