Baker v. McCollan

Last Term, in Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U. S. 555 (1978), we granted certiorari to consider the question whether negligent conduct can form the basis of an award of damages under 42 U. S. C. § 1983. The constitutional violation alleged in Procunier was interference on the part of prison officials with a prisoner’s outgoing mail. The complaint alleged that the prison officials had acted with every conceivable state of mind, from “knowingly” and in “bad faith” to “negligently and inadvertently.” We granted certiorari, however, only on the question “[w]hether negligent failure to mail certain…