Cite as: 507 U. S. 292 (1993)
Stevens, J., dissenting
comparable to the difference between imprisonment and probation or parole. Both conditions can be described as "legal custody," but the constitutional dimensions of individual "liberty" identify the great divide that separates the two. See Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U. S. 471, 482 (1972). The same is true regarding the allegedly improved conditions of confinement—a proposition, incidentally, that is disputed by several amici curiae.5 The fact that the present conditions may satisfy standards appropriate for incarcerated juvenile offenders does not detract in the slightest from the basic proposition that this is a case about the wholesale detention of children who do not pose a risk of flight, and who are not a threat to either themselves or the community.
Second, the period of detention is indefinite, and has, on occasion, approached one year.6 In its statement of policy
leave. That notion is reinforced by the very next sentence in the agreement: "However, [r]ecipients are required to design programs and strategies to discourage runaways and prevent the unauthorized absence of minors in care." Ibid.
Indeed, the very definition of the word "detention" in the American Bar Association's Juvenile Justice Standards reflects the fact that it still constitutes detention even if a juvenile is placed in a facility that is "decent and humane," ante, at 303:
"The definition of detention in this standard includes every facility used by the state to house juveniles during the interim period. Whether it gives the appearance of the worst sort of jail, or a comfortable and pleasant home, the facility is classified as 'detention' if it is not the juvenile's usual place of abode." Institute of Judicial Administration, American Bar Association, Juvenile Justice Standards: Standards Relating to Interim Status 45 (1980) (citing Wald, "Pretrial Detention for Juveniles," in Pursuing Justice for the Child 119, 120 (Rosenheim ed. 1976)).
The point cannot be overemphasized. The legal formalism that children are always in someone else's custody should not obscure the fact that "[i]nstitutionalization," as Justice O'Connor explains, "is a decisive and unusual event." Ante, at 318 (concurring opinion).
5 See Brief for Southwest Refugee Rights Project et al. as Amici Curiae 20-33.
6 See Deposition of Kim Carter Hedrick, INS Detention Center Director-Manager (CD Cal., June 27, 1986), p. 68.
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