Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/531

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 367 (1992)

373

Opinion of the Court

motion, personal cleanliness, and personal privacy. The court finds and rules that the quality of incarceration at Charles Street is ‘punishment’ of such a nature and degree that it cannot be justified by the state’s interest in holding defendants for trial; and therefore it violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Id., at 686.1 The court permanently enjoined the government defendants: “(a) from housing at the Charles Street Jail after November 30, 1973 in a cell with another inmate, any inmate who is awaiting trial and (b) from housing at the Charles Street Jail after June 30, 1976 any inmate who is awaiting trial.” Id., at 691. The defendants did not appeal.2 In 1977, with the problems of the Charles Street Jail still unresolved, the District Court ordered defendants, including the Boston City Council, to take such steps and expend the funds reasonably necessary to renovate another existing facility as a substitute detention center. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, Civ. Action No. 71–162–G (Mass., 1

The court was of the view that cases dealing with pretrial detention are more appropriately analyzed under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment than under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment, but thought that conditions at the Charles Street Jail were also vulnerable under the Eighth Amendment. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail v. Eisenstadt, 360 F. Supp., at 688. 2 However, within five months, Suffolk County officials advised the court that they could not comply with the November 30 deadline for ending double celling at the Charles Street Jail. The District Court ordered the commissioner to transfer inmates to other institutions, and the commissioner appealed, claiming that the court lacked the power to order him to make the transfers. The First Circuit affirmed the order of the District Court, finding that the commissioner had “major statutory responsibilities” over county jails and that he had failed to appeal the District Court’s decision holding that he was a proper party to the lawsuit. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail v. Eisenstadt, 494 F. 2d 1196, cert. denied, 419 U. S. 977 (1974).