California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Inmates of the Riverside County Jail v. Clark, 144 Cal.App.3d 850, 192 Cal.Rptr. 823 (Cal. App. 1983):
"A court must decide whether the disability is imposed for the purpose of punishment or whether it is but an incident of some other legitimate governmental purpose. [Citation.] Absent a showing of an expressed intent to punish on the part of detention facility officials, that determination generally will turn on 'whether an alternative purpose to which [the restriction] may rationally be connected is assignable for it, and whether it appears excessive in relation to the alternative purpose assigned [to it].' [Citations.] Thus, if a particular condition or restriction of pretrial detention is reasonably related to a legitimate governmental objective, it does not, without more, amount to 'punishment.' " (Bell v. Wolfish (1979) 441 U.S. 520, 538-539, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1873-1874, 60 L.Ed.2d 447.)
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