502us2$26D 01-22-99 08:32:58 PAGES OPINPGT
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).