Peace officers who violate the civil rights of a prisoner by intentionally subjecting a person in custody to bodily injury have committed a:

Answer: class A misdemeanor

Explanation: Misdemeanor are those cases that are less in seriousness when compared to a felony hence misdemeanors are classified into levels based on how serious the commited offense is.

Class A misdemeanor is a serious level of misdemeanours.

These classification are used to make it easier to give an appropriate punishment for each misdemeanor based on its seriousness as stated on each level.

The punishment for misdemeanor can range from few months in jail to a year if it is a serious misdemeanor like the one mentioned above.

The punishment can also be a paid fine for a demeanor case.

An example of a demeanor can be an assault (like the one above) which is classified as a class A misdemeanor in a particular state; and in that state, class A misdemeanors may result to a jail sentence of up to one year accompanied by a fine of almost $5,000 depending on how the state charge such cases.

Another example will be if you punch someone with your first only once that can be considered a misdemeanor unless if you punched them and they hit the wall, crack their head or break their neck in the process then it becomes a felony.

Some states, however, do not classify their misdemeanor crimes. Instead, for each offense, the punishment is written right into the statute that defines the crime.