Robinson

Pro se prisoner George Robinson filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit against several prison officials and correctional officers (collectively, “the defendants”) at the Calipatria State Prison in California, alleging that the operation of integrated exercise yards at Calipatria constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The defendants moved for summary judgment on the ground that they were entitled to qualified immunity. The district court denied the defendants qualified immunity because there was a triable issue as to whether they were deliberately indifferent to an excessive risk that Robinson would be harmed when he was placed in an integrated yard. We have jurisdiction over the defendants’ appeal pursuant to the collateral order doctrine, and we affirm.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

George Robinson, an African-American prisoner at the Calipatria State Prison in California, is housed in the Administrative Segregation Unit, a “prison within a prison” that is reserved for inmates who have violated prison rules. Since 1996, Calipat-ria has followed the California Department of Correction’s (“CDC”) policy of maintaining racially integrated prison yards. Rob *864 inson alleges that…