SECTIONS 844-846 - California Statutes

GOVERNMENT CODE

SECTION 844-846

844. As used in this chapter, "prisoner" includes an inmate of a
prison, jail, or penal or correctional facility. For the purposes of
this chapter, a lawfully arrested person who is brought into a law
enforcement facility for the purpose of being booked, as described in
Section 7 of the Penal Code, becomes a prisoner, as a matter of law,
upon his or her initial entry into a prison, jail, or penal or
correctional facility, pursuant to penal processes.

844.6. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, except
as provided in this section and in Sections 814, 814.2, 845.4, and
845.6, or in Title 2.1 (commencing with Section 3500) of Part 3 of
the Penal Code, a public entity is not liable for:
(1) An injury proximately caused by any prisoner.
(2) An injury to any prisoner.
(b) Nothing in this section affects the liability of a public
entity under Article 1 (commencing with Section 17000) of Chapter 1
of Division 9 of the Vehicle Code.
(c) Except for an injury to a prisoner, nothing in this section
prevents recovery from the public entity for an injury resulting from
the dangerous condition of public property under Chapter 2
(commencing with Section 830) of this part.
(d) Nothing in this section exonerates a public employee from
liability for injury proximately caused by his negligent or wrongful
act or omission. The public entity may but is not required to pay any
judgment, compromise or settlement, or may but is not required to
indemnify any public employee, in any case where the public entity is
immune from liability under this section; except that the public
entity shall pay, as provided in Article 4 (commencing with Section
825) of Chapter 1 of this part, any judgment based on a claim against
a public employee who is lawfully engaged in the practice of one of
the healing arts under any law of this state for malpractice arising
from an act or omission in the scope of his employment, and shall pay
any compromise or settlement of a claim or action, based on such
malpractice, to which the public entity has agreed.

845. Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for
failure to establish a police department or otherwise to provide
police protection service or, if police protection service is
provided, for failure to provide sufficient police protection
service.
A police department shall not fail to respond to a request for
service via a burglar alarm system or an alarm company referral
service solely on the basis that a permit from the city has not been
obtained.

845.2. Except as provided in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section
830), neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for
failure to provide a prison, jail or penal or correctional facility
or, if such facility is provided, for failure to provide sufficient
equipment, personnel or facilities therein.

845.4. Neither a public entity nor a public employee acting within
the scope of his employment is liable for interfering with the right
of a prisoner to obtain a judicial determination or review of the
legality of his confinement; but a public employee, and the public
entity where the employee is acting within the scope of his
employment, is liable for injury proximately caused by the employee's
intentional and unjustifiable interference with such right, but no
cause of action for such injury shall be deemed to accrue until it
has first been determined that the confinement was illegal.

845.6. Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for
injury proximately caused by the failure of the employee to furnish
or obtain medical care for a prisoner in his custody; but, except as
otherwise provided by Sections 855.8 and 856, a public employee, and
the public entity where the employee is acting within the scope of
his employment, is liable if the employee knows or has reason to know
that the prisoner is in need of immediate medical care and he fails
to take reasonable action to summon such medical care. Nothing in
this section exonerates a public employee who is lawfully engaged in
the practice of one of the healing arts under any law of this state
from liability for injury proximately caused by malpractice or
exonerates the public entity from its obligation to pay any judgment,
compromise, or settlement that it is required to pay under
subdivision (d) of Section 844.6.

845.8. Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for:
(a) Any injury resulting from determining whether to parole or
release a prisoner or from determining the terms and conditions of
his parole or release or from determining whether to revoke his
parole or release.
(b) Any injury caused by:
(1) An escaping or escaped prisoner;
(2) An escaping or escaped arrested person; or
(3) A person resisting arrest.

846. Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for
injury caused by the failure to make an arrest or by the failure to
retain an arrested person in custody.