502us2$26I 01-22-99 08:32:58 PAGES OPINPGT
404
RUFO v. INMATES OF SUFFOLK COUNTY JAIL
Stevens, J., dissenting
fact, in this action it is apparent that the two overriding
purposes that informed both the District Court’s interim
remedy and respondents’ negotiations were the prohibition
against double celling and the closing of the old jail. The
plan that was ultimately accepted, as well as the terms of
the consent decree entered in 1979, were designed to serve
these two purposes.
The consent decree incorporated all the details of the
agreed upon architectural program. A recital in the decree
refers to the program as “both constitutionally adequate and
constitutionally required.” 3 That recital, of course, does not
indicate that either the court or the parties thought that
every detail of the settlement—or, indeed, any of its specific
provisions—was “constitutionally required.” An adequate
remedy was constitutionally required, and the parties and
the court were satisfied that this program was constitutionally adequate. But that is not a basis for assuming that the
parties believed that any provision of the decree, including
the prohibition against double celling, was constitutionally
required.4
3
The relevant passage reads in full:
“And whereas all parties agree that for the purposes of this litigation
the Suffolk County Detention Center, Charles Street Facility, Architectural Program which is attached and, as modified in paragraph 3 below,
incorporated in this decree, sets forth a program which is both constitutionally adequate and constitutionally required.” App. to Pet. for Cert.
in No. 90–954, p. 16a.
4
Consider, for example, the following provisions of the decree:
“(d) The paragraph headed ‘A.1.a. Lobby/reception’ on page 8 is changed
by increasing the number of visitor lockers to one-hundred (100) and the
tenth sentence in that paragraph is changed to read:
‘Lobby should include public telephones, drinking fountain, vending machines and bulletin boards.’
.
.
.
.
.
“( j) The following paragraph shall be added to page 37:
‘Inmate laundry rooms shall be located to permit convenient access and
staff supervision. Room placement and the number of laundry rooms required shall be resolved during the design phase. Each inmate laundry
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