Hardie Vertrain Sims, Jr. v. Mashburn, Officer, Coi, John B. Sanderson, Sgt., Gene Kelly, Officer, Coi Malone, Officer, Coi L. Burton, Warden

COX, Circuit Judge:

Sgt. John Sanderson, a prison official at the St. Clair Correctional Facility, appeals the judgment of the district court. The district court held that Sanderson had violated inmate Hardie Sims’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and awarded $500 in damages. We reverse.

I. Background 1

On August 27, 1990, Sims, an Alabama prison inmate, was serving a twenty-one year sentence for robbery. He was housed in the administrative segregation unit at the St. Clair Correctional Facility. Sanderson was serving as shift commander in the unit for the…