In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________

No. 02-2005 LEO PASCHAL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant-Appellee. ____________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 01 C 4385—Matthew F. Kennelly, Judge. ____________ SUBMITTED JUNE 19, 2002—DECIDED SEPTEMBER 11, 2002 ____________

Before POSNER, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges. POSNER, Circuit Judge. Leo Paschal, an inmate in a fed- eral prison, has asked us to appoint counsel for him in this appeal. For reasons explained in an unpublished or- der issued today, we deny the motion and summarily affirm the judgment of the district court. This published opinion is limited to a single issue, one on which there is, surprisingly, no case law. While a pretrial detainee at the Metropolitan Correction- al Center in Chicago, a federal jail, Paschal slipped and fell on a wet floor in the prison’s kitchen, where he was working. He sued the United States under the Federal Tort 2 No. 02-2005

Claims Act. On motion by the government, the district court dismissed the suit because the Inmate Compensation Program, 18 U.S.C. § 4126(c), the judge ruled, provided Paschal’s exclusive remedy. That Act provides the exclu- sive remedy for federal inmates injured while working, United States v. Demko, 385 U.S. 149, 152 (1966); Bagola v. Kindt, 39 F.3d 779, 780 (7th Cir. 1995), but this is the first reported case in which the inmate was a pretrial de- tainee rather than a convicted prisoner. A federal inmate is a person in federal custody; the reason for his being an inmate is irrelevant to his status as an inmate. Pol- icies administered by the Bureau of Prisons are generally applicable to pretrial detainees and convicted prisoners alike, see 28 C.F.R. § 500.1(c), and it is relevant to note that in 1994 the Bureau amended its regulation defining “re- lease” (inmates injured during service in a prison indus- try or workplace may not file claims under the ICP until no more than 45 days remain before their scheduled re- lease from federal custody, 28 C.F.R. § 301.303(a)) to in- clude in the term “final discharge from incarceration of a pretrial inmate.” 28 C.F.R. § 301.102(b)(1). (A “pre- trial inmate” is expressly defined to include “a person awaiting trial, being tried, or awaiting a verdict.” 28 C.F.R. § 551.101(a).) Previously the regulation had defined “re- lease” to exclude “pretrial inmate.” We cannot think of any reason why Congress would have wanted the two classes of prison workers distinguished, and we there- fore agree with the district court that the statute applies to pretrial detainees. AFFIRMED. No. 02-2005 3

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_____________________________ Clerk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

USCA-97-C-006—9-11-02