I don't see how it matters who is at fault for the temperature. The guards put him in there as an extrajudicial punishment intending to hurt him. This clearly is a breach of humanitarian law under convention against torture which the US is party to. It is arguably a breach even with all the reservations the US added to its signing ( lots of 'yeah, buts'). And the only way to argue that it is not a breach under the Constitution would be to say that while it is cruel it is not unusual and the 8th amendment uses an "and" not an "or." This is a depraved heart murder on the part of the guards even if the janitor fucked up.

Not that I disagree with you, but just to play junior defense attorney here, it could be argued that the guards didn't know just how hot the water really was, or that it presented an actual physical threat to the inmate. In that sense it does matter who was at fault for the temperature, especially if it was some kind of anomaly.
Of course, even if this were the case, it seems like they should at least face some kind of wrongful death or involuntary manslaughter charge.

No doubt it was cruel, so I guess the question is: Is this unusual? Is it still standard routine to more or less hose down prisoners as a form of punishment? I watch a lot of prison documentaries and while I have seen a lot of subhuman treatment, I have never seen this done. That doesn't mean the documentarians aren't capturing it or that they're not just failing to include it, but it does leave me to wonder if this qualifies as both cruel AND unusual.

I am also curious if anyone here knows more about the subject: If you'll recall I had this post about how prisoners on psych medications that reduce body temperature were being kept in cold cells and dying of hypothermia. So... what protections, if any, do we offer to inmates with mental illness?

Let's assume that punishment of someone who understands their crime is fair. Let's also assume that punishing people who don't understand their crime is, if not unfair, less fair. If a schizophrenic prisoner causes problems because of their poorly controlled mental illness, is it fair to punish them any more than it's fair to punish a diabetic who goes into a fit over low blood sugar? Granted... we do just that. Prisoners are not allowed to take food from the cafeteria (so they can't make pruno), but diabetic prisoners need more regular feeding than the prison offers, so they are often forced to choose between possible discipline or not controlling their medical issue.

Do we have any SEers who know more about the laws that protect the otherly abled and whether/how they apply once one of these individuals is convicted? It's pertinent. Prisons replaced mental institutions as the most common place we house our most mentally ill persons in this society. The prisons aren't equipped for it and it's a mess.

I don't know much about prisoners rights but as far as I am aware. There is little representation for them - there is no money in it and the large organizations like the ACLU are way overworked and have to choose their cases carefully. Since organizations like that keep an eye on the big picture when looking for a test case they wait until they have a sympathetic client who they think they can win with.

Most prisoners are left to their own devices, those of their family, or by relying on a schools prisoners rights project. At my law school, the criminal procedure professor made responding to prisoners letters mandatory since we got hundreds a year. Ninety percent of it was explaining to them they had no case, but on occasion there was one with merit. Most were barely legible, poorly reasoned, and so on. On occasion there were very good ones and a few prisons that happened to have some lawyer serving time usually produced some good ones since that was what a lawyer in prison had to trade. Still, I think that we only provided court room representation two or three times while I was school. The professor who carried out that representation was hit with Rule 11 sanctions. That can have a chilling effect.

While many of the issues raised by prisoners are not violations ( arguments over the tv channel, not providing ketchup in the cafeteria, stuff), the good ones can get lost in the overwhelming output and the charitable agencies can't keep up.

For anyone who is not aware of it, however, one of the most important cases in US history was kicked off by the hand written appeal to the Supreme Court by an uneducated man. Gideon v Wainwright is why everyone now has a right to a state provided attorney in criminal matters.

"The water was turned up to 180 degrees."

“The shower was itself neither dangerous nor unsafe,’’ the report says.

These are mutually exclusive statements. Both can not be true. Any state plumbing inspector should fail a shower that produces 180 degree water. Either the showers were not properly inspected, something was changed violating code, or the inspector did not perform his/her job.

State and Federal agencies are often exempt from code inspections. Some may allow local inspectors for a show of face, but will not be held liable to actually resolve any findings.

That's semi-surprising. I have a relative who builds hospitals for the military, and they are super-sticklers for building code. But on the other hand, that's the military building facilities for its own people, as opposed to the State building facilities for no-good, degenerate, "what do you mean, 'human rights'?", pond-scum, criminals.

Wouldn't that be on the water heater end, not the shower itself? Granted, I have no idea if the plumbing arrangement in a communal facility like this differs from the home Heater -> Pipes -> Shower setup.

If it's an old system, yes, but more modern showers have scald prevention valves that automatically mix the hot and cold water to prevent injury.

I'm wondering how they know the water was 180°.
Also, to be really technical, he would have simmered, not boiled to death, as this is well below the boiling point of water.

when i was in jail in snohomish county, if people continuously flushed every toilet in the block, the shower water would start to get unbearably hot after about 10 mins.

So who organized that experiment?

it was shared knowledge amongst the cellies. it was exploited so one could take an actual hot shower or drink a hot beverage, rather than just lukewarm served by the tap