374
Opinion of the Court
June 30, 1977), App. 22. The Court of Appeals agreed that immediate action was required:
"It is now just short of five years since the district court's opinion was issued. For all of that time the plaintiff class has been confined under the conditions repugnant to the constitution. For all of that time defendants have been aware of that fact.
. . . . .
"Given the present state of the record and the unconscionable delay that plaintiffs have already endured in securing their constitutional rights, we have no alternative but to affirm the district court's order to prohibit the incarceration of pretrial detainees at the Charles St. Jail." Inmates of Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, 573 F. 2d 98, 99-100 (CA1 1978).
The Court of Appeals ordered that the Charles Street Jail be closed on October 2, 1978, unless a plan was presented to create a constitutionally adequate facility for pretrial detain-ees in Suffolk County.
Four days before the deadline, the plan that formed the basis for the consent decree now before this Court was submitted to the District Court. Although plans for the new jail were not complete, the District Court observed that "the critical features of confinement, such as single cells of 80 sq. ft. for inmates, are fixed and safety, security, medical, recreational, kitchen, laundry, educational, religious and visiting provisions, are included. There are unequivocal commitments to conditions of confinement which will meet constitutional standards." Inmates of Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, Civ. Action No. 71-162-G (Mass., Oct. 2, 1978), App. 51, 55. The court therefore allowed Suffolk County to continue housing its pretrial detainees at the Charles Street Jail.
Seven months later, the court entered a formal consent decree in which the government defendants expressed their "desire . . . to provide, maintain and operate as applicable a
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