Herbert F. McGill Plaintiff-Appellee/cross-Appellant v. Jack R. Duckworth, Defendants-Appellants/cross-Appellees

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Prisons are dangerous places. Housing the most aggressive among us, they place violent people in close quarters. Those who have difficulty conforming to society’s norms outside prison may find obedience no more attractive inside — and the threat of punishment for violence is diminished for one already serving a long term. Herbert McGill asks the federal courts to hold prison officials to answer for the injuries that their charges inflict on each other.

*346I

In 1983 McGill shot and killed (and then robbed) David Anderson. McGill pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter…