856
Blackmun, J., concurring
and with what intent, the experience of the inmate is the same. A punishment is simply no less cruel or unusual because its harm is unintended. In view of this obvious fact, there is no reason to believe that, in adopting the Eighth Amendment, the Framers intended to prohibit cruel and unusual punishments only when they were inflicted intentionally. As Judge Noonan has observed:
"The Framers were familiar from their wartime experience of British prisons with the kind of cruel punishment administered by a warden with the mentality of a Captain Bligh. But they were also familiar with the cruelty that came from bureaucratic indifference to the conditions of confinement. The Framers understood that cruel and unusual punishment can be administered by the failure of those in charge to give heed to the impact of their actions on those within their care." Jordan v. Gardner, 986 F. 2d 1521, 1544 (CA9 1993) (concurring opinion) (citations omitted) (emphasis added).
Before Wilson, it was assumed, if not established, that the conditions of confinement are themselves part of the punishment, even if not specifically "meted out" by a statute or judge. See Wilson, 501 U. S., 306-309 (White, J., concurring in judgment), citing Hutto v. Finney, 437 U. S. 678 (1978); Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U. S. 337 (1981). We examined only the objective severity of the conditions of confinement in the pre-Wilson cases, not the subjective intent of government officials, as we found that "[a]n express intent to inflict unnecessary pain is not required, . . . and harsh 'conditions of confinement' may constitute cruel and unusual punishment unless such conditions 'are part of the penalty that criminal offenders pay for their offenses against society.' " Whitley v. Albers, 475 U. S. 312, 319 (1986), quoting Rhodes, 452 U. S., at 347 (emphasis added). This initial approach, which employed an objective standard to chart the boundaries of the Eighth Amendment, reflected the practical real-
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