Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OPINION, FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, AND ORDERS GRANTING PLAINTIFFS RELIEF JOHN W. OLIVER, Chief Judge. I. Final determination of this § 1983 case involving the Platte County Jail was postponed on two separate occasions for different but related reasons. As we shall later state in some detail, circumstances beyond the control of the parties and this Court relating to the complications which have apparently developed in connection with the establishment of a medium security correctional institution by the State of Missouri in Clay County, Missouri, require that the final determination of this case can no longer be delayed. Accordingly, a final judgment and decree in favor of the plaintiffs will be entered closing the Platte County Jail until and unless substantial changes are made in the physical structure and operation of that ancient facility. For purposes of explanation, it should be stated initially that experience in § 1983 cases involving the conditions of confinement in correctional institutions has demonstrated that the excessively long delays in the final determination of a particular case, occasioned by appeals from district court decisions, have sometimes been avoided by proper timing of procedures leading to an agreed final determination in the district court and the entry of a consent judgment and decree under which conditions in violation of federal constitutional standards would be corrected. Goldsby v. Carnes (W.D.Mo.1973) 365 F.Supp. 395, involving the Jackson County Jail, in which a first supplemental consent judgment and decree was recently entered on March 24, 1977, as reported in 429 F.Supp. 370, and Glenn v. Wilkinson (W.D.Mo.1970) 309 F.Supp. 411, involving the conditions of confinement of prisoners on death row in the Missouri Penitentiary, are examples of cases in which proper timing of final determination avoided the necessity of further litigation. The Court of Appeals’ decision in Finney v. Arkansas Board of Correction (8th Cir. 1974) 505 F.2d 194, on the other hand, recounts the history of the long-continuing litigation involving the Arkansas prison system. After three separate district court opinions and an earlier court of appeals opinion (the earlier opinions are reported at 300 F.Supp. 825 (1969); 309 F.Supp. 362 (1970), aff’d 442 F.2d 304 (8th Cir. 1971); and 363 F.Supp. 194 (1973)), the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found it necessary once again to remand the case to the district court for the latter court to retain jurisdiction and to grant further relief under the circumstances. Finney v. Arkansas Board of Correction, 505 F.2d at 200. Our effort to find the proper timing to reach final determination in this case was consistent with this Court’s experience in Goldsby and Glenn, supra, and was thus undertaken in the hope that the almost endless litigation illustrated by the Arkansas prisons system cases would be thus avoided. We first delayed final determination of this case after the parties had filed their respective post-trial suggested findings of fact and conclusions of law in July, 1976. Everyone concerned knew at that time that the voters of Platte County; Missouri would be afforded still another opportunity to approve a bond issue for the construction of a completely new Platte County Jail. Although at least six different bond proposals for a new jail had been defeated at the Platte County polls over the past ten years, we believed that appropriate considerations of general comity required that we delay the final determination of this case until after the bond election was held. While an initial plan would have put the jail bond proposal on the August primary election ballot, the Platte County officials eventually decided that the jail bond proposal should not be submitted until the November, 1976 general election. The passage of the bond proposal at the November, 1976 general election presented an entirely new factual situation, particularly in regard to what remedy might be appropriate under the new circumstances. For it was clear that after the passage of the bond issue, no one anticipated that any of the existing facilities would be permanently used for the housing of inmates for any purpose. The attention of the Court and counsel was therefore directed to a consideration of determining how inmates were to be handled until a new jail was constructed and to appropriately review the construction plans and specifications for the new facility in order to make certain that the new jail would be constructed and maintained in accordance with constitutional standards. The second reason for delay in final determination became apparent during the course of carrying out the procedures required by the passage of the bond issue. It then became a matter of public knowledge that an earlier aborted attempt by the State of Missouri to build and maintain a medium security correctional institution in the Greater Kansas City area was being revived by the newly elected Governor of Missouri. The available reports of progress, which indicated that the revived effort would be successful, occasioned the second delay in our final determination of this case. The pending litigation, earlier litigation in connection with State penal institutions and other county jails in Missouri which has pended in this Court, and the testimony of Dr. George Mallory Camp, who at the time of trial was the Deputy Director of the State of Missouri’s Division of Social Services, with primary responsibility for direction of the State of Missouri’s Department of Corrections, have required this Court to become more than ordinarily familiar with the long-neglected problems of both State correctional institutions and various county jails in this State. Dr. Camp testified that: I think that the Platte County Jail situation has to be looked at not only in and of itself, but it has to be looked at as a part of the problems of jails in Missouri as a whole. . . . The Missouri General Assembly for the last four years, I believe, has had before it one form or another a bill known as the Minimum Jail Standards Bill. I think that if the legislation as originally drafted or as partially amended when it had some teeth and guts in it had been passed by the General Assembly and signed into law, we might not be sitting here today. . . . The Legislative Branch of the government has abdicated its responsibility to act and has in essence . . . forced the Court to enter into an area or areas where in the past [the public has] relied upon the Executive and Legislative Branches of government ... to adequately interpret the law and abide by the Constitution. It seems to me that in the case of the Platte County Jail, had there been minimum standards, had there been statewide inspection of jails, had the State as a whole, the State government, worked more closely with county government to assist them ... in providing the resources to correct those deficiencies, I don’t think we would be here today. (Tr. 358.) We considered the following testimony of Dr. Camp of particular significance in regard to our conclusion that we should delay final determination of this case until it became certain that the State of Missouri, at long last, was finally going to construct and maintain a medium security correctional institution in the Greater Kansas City metropolitan area: We have planned, we have thought, we have talked, but we have not acted. . Perhaps what we need are overnight lockups in each of the counties to assist the court in the initial arraignment of the defendant and then we need a series of State-operated jails, such as the State of Connecticut has, where each county would transport its pretrial detainees as well as those individuals serving misdemeanor sentences, and that the State operate these and either funded completely by the State or where each county pays its share in terms of the number of individuals that it boards there, some sort of workable arrangement. ... I think [the problem] is much broader than just the Platte County Jail. It is something that needs to be addressed within the entire State. [Tr. 359-60] This Court, for the reasons stated, has long been familiar with repeated proposals and recommendations for the establishment of regional detention facilities for the various counties located in this part of the State of Missouri. Consultants for the Northwest Missouri Law Enforcement Assistance Council, for example, recommended to that body in 1971 that a major regional detention facility be established in Jackson County and that new satellite jails for Clay and Platte Counties be constructed only for the purpose of housing pretrial inmates for periods of seven days or less. Those, consultants estimated that the costs of the recommended satellite jail facilities would be $476,300 for Clay County and $492,000 for Platte County. See Feasibility Study for Northwest Missouri Regional Center, prepared as a joint venture by SUA, a division of Dillingham Corporation, and Prindle and Patrick, Architects and Planners (1971). The recommendations of that feasibility study, and others like it, were based on the obvious ground that the taxpayers of Platte and Clay Counties should not be called upon to bear the burden of building duplicate full scale jail facilities when the construction of a single facility for use of several counties would more adequately serve the needs of all governmental units involved. Most informed persons have long recognized that if the always complicated problems of establishing cooperative inter-governmental arrangements could be solved in regard to the location and financing of the long-needed new correctional facilities in Jackson, Clay and Platte Counties, the implementation of some viable working arrangement with the State of Missouri could result in a substantial saving of public money under the circumstances. Both State and local interests would obviously have been served by such a working arrangement. The evidence adduced in this case established that the primary use of the Platte County Jail in recent years has been for housing pretrial detainees who are accused but not convicted of any crime. In recent years, a relatively small number of convicted defendants have actually served sentences in the Platte County Jail. The evidence also established that the same thing is true of Clay County, Missouri. Indeed, the evidence shows that the officials of Clay County, faced with the reality of no available State aid for county jails, entered into a formal cooperative contract with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, under which persons convicted of State criminal law violations in the Circuit Court of Clay County actually serve their sentences in the Municipal Correctional Institution maintained by the City of Kansas City, Missouri. The vast majority of all persons confined in county jails throughout the State of Missouri are being held for alleged or proven violations of the criminal laws of the State of Missouri. Historically, however, the State of Missouri has thus far refused to assume any direct responsibility for the cost of maintaining custody of persons convicted of violations of its own criminal laws, unless such persons receive a sentence of two or more years. See § 546.490, V.A.M.S., which provides in part that “no person shall in any case be sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for any term less than two years.” Thus, all costs for holding persons accused of violations of the criminal laws of the State of Missouri in the county jails of Missouri, and all costs for holding persons serving sentences of one year or less in county jails for violations of State law, see § 546.500, have historically been and at the present time are being imposed directly on the county in which the defendant is held for trial or in which he was convicted. In spite of the obvious fact that Missouri’s antiquated system of incarcerating persons charged and convicted of violations of its own State criminal laws in county jails scattered throughout the State is breaking down, the State of Missouri continues to ignore the problems created by its consistent legislative neglect. Amicus Curiae’s Exhibit 12, a survey of Missouri’s jails made by the Corrections Task Force of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare in 1974, accurately reported that since the National Jail Census was taken by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in 1970, nine county jails in Missouri’s 144 counties have been abandoned as unfit for human habitation and one has been completely destroyed. Forty-five of the remaining 134 county jails in Missouri are seventy-five to one hundred years old, or older. [Id. at 5], Speaking generally, that report accurately stated that “[m]ost of the people who are annually processed in Missouri jails have not been found guilty of [any] crime . [but] these legally innocent prisoners must live in dangerous situations, and inhumane treatment of prisoners, either legally innocent or guilty, is a direct violation of Amendment VIII of the United States Constitution.” [Id. at 7]. The 1974 Missouri Association for Social Welfare (MASW) Corrections Task Force Report directed attention to the fact that “[c]ontrary to the common assumption, the overwhelming number of people in Missouri’s jails at any one time are first offenders, . are not major offenders, but are instead people awaiting trial on misdemean-ant charges or serving a sentence for a minor crime, . . . and are not major risks to the community.” [Id. at 8; emphasis the Report’s]. That Report, however, in recognition of the apparent facts of political life as it has long been practiced in the State of Missouri with regard to correctional institutions, stated that “[politically, Missouri jails are unloved, but jealously guarded stepchildren, . . . millions of dollars in revenuesharing money have been lost because two jurisdictions within a few miles insist on developing their own jails [with] the end result [of] two new jails filled only rarely during the year, with neither having rehabilitative programming.” [Id. at 18]. It is apparent that the location of a medium security correctional institution in Clay County would have reflected a long-deferred recognition by the State of Missouri that something had to be done in regard to its long-neglected duty to provide appropriate correctional institutions for those convicted of violations of State law. Such action would have also afforded the State of Missouri an appropriate opportunity to experiment with the establishment of workable arrangements with nearby county governmental units, including but not limited to Platte County, under which persons convicted of violations of State laws could serve their sentences in the new medium security institution. The establishment of such a working arrangement between the State correctional system and local county governmental units would obviously have eliminated any necessity for the participating counties to construct and maintain more than a pretrial detention facility solely for housing of persons accused of State law violations, rather than a facility in which convicted defendants would serve their sentences. Persons convicted in the Circuit Court of Platte County of violations of State criminal laws, for example, would have been able to serve their sentences in the State medium security correctional institution under the anticipated working arrangement. Such persons would have had the benefit of the appropriate rehabilitative programs as would have been established in the State medium security correctional institution for the larger number of inmates who would have been confined in that institution. The difference in the cost of construction, maintenance, and operation of a county pretrial detention holding facility and a full-scale county jail, in which a handful of convicted, defendants would serve sentences of a year or less, is quite obvious. The possibility that the State of Missouri and Platte County would have been able to agree upon a workable arrangement to serve the needs of both governmental units required that appropriate consideration be given to the obvious saving of public funds and to a more equitable distribution of the cost of housing for persons serving sentences for convictions of State law, rather than local law. The recent revival by the Executive Branch of the State of Missouri’s plans to locate a medium security correctional institution in Clay County was viewed in further light of the fact that Platte County, Missouri had passed its bond issue for the construction of a new jail in November, 1976. Familiarity with the provisions of Art. 6, § 16 of the Constitution of Missouri, which grants power to all political subdivisions of the State of Missouri to contract and cooperate with each other, with other States, and with the United States for planning, construction, and operation of any public facility, when considered in light of Platte County’s passage of its jail bond proposal, in light of the continued interest in Clay County to solve its increasingly difficult jail problem, and in light of the anticipated location of a new State medium security correctional institution in Clay County, suggested that this Court continue to withhold final determination in this case until after the State of Missouri had completed its site acquisition and committed funds for the construction of its new facility so that all three separate units of government would be able to give appropriate consideration to whether workable arrangements could be agreed upon under which a combination of their resources would, without duplication, meet their separate needs. Any further delay in the final determination of this case can no longer be justified on the theory that the State of Missouri may meet its responsibilities within a reasonable period of time. The recent turn of events in the Legislative Branch of the State of Missouri in regard to the establishment of a medium security correctional facility at the site selected by the Executive Branch of the State of Missouri in southern Clay County may, once again, effectively foreclose and indefinitely postpone any affirmative action by the State of Missouri in regard to the discharge of its long-recognized duties and responsibilities to establish and maintain appropriate correctional institutions in this State. While this Court was most hopeful for the success of the revived effort of the State of Missouri to recognize and to deal realistically with its increasingly difficult problems of providing adequate State and local correctional institutions, we have reluctantly concluded in light of the circumstances stated that any further delay in the final determination of this case cannot be justified under the circumstances. II. There has never been any substantial dispute about most of the relevant and material factual circumstances of this case. The parties stipulated and agreed in Standard Pretrial Order No. 2 that the following facts were true and required no proof: 1. Plaintiff Fred Ahrens was confined in the Platte County Jail from August 11,1973 to September 30, 1974. He was a pretrial detainee upon a charge of Burglary II and Stealing, and is an adult citizen of the United States and the State of Missouri. 2. Thomas J. Thomas is the duly elected Sheriff of Platte County, Missouri, and among his duties are those specified in R.S.Mo. § 221.020. 3. Henry Miller, Alfred Kyle and Charles Kutz are duly elected judges of the Platte County Court and are responsible for performing duties prescribed by R.S.Mo. §§ 49.310 and 221.120. 4. A Platte County Jail was erected in 1867 on the present site, according to Annals of Platte County Missouri, From Its Explorations Down to June 1, 1897, by William M. Paxton, Hudson, Kimberly (Kansas City, Missouri 1897). The jail was restored in 1887. 5. During part of the winter months of November and December, 1972, and January, 1973, there were 32 windows broken out on the south side of the jail. 6. Blankets are washed only on an irregular basis. 7. No sheets are provided for the beds. 8. There is uninsulated electrical wiring hanging down into the inmate area in the “South” tank. 9. No shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs or razors are furnished. 10. Towels and washcloths are generally not provided to inmates. These items are only provided to those inmates that jail personnel determine are indigent, and that definition limits indigency to inmates who have no money to use to purchase cigarettes, candy, soft drinks, or other commissary items. 11. No area is provided for exercise or recreation and no games or entertainment are provided. 12. There are no programs or facilities for counseling, training, rehabilitation, or education. 13. There are no facilities or medical personnel at the jail, and no medical screening procedure is used when new inmates are incarcerated. 14. A prisoner notifies the jailer when he desires to see a doctor; and the jailer, a person with no medical training, decides what action is appropriate for any particular case. 15. Prisoners at the Platte County Jail are generally confined to their tank areas at all times except for trips to the courthouse, visits to a doctor’s office, and interviews with attorneys. 16. There is no regular program for having a doctor visit the jail to attend to the medical needs of the prisoners. 17. No regular program for taking any prisoner complaining of a physical ailment to see a doctor promptly has been established. 18. New inmates are given the opportunity to sign a waiver to allow jail officials to open their mail. 19. Prisoners who refuse to sign this waiver are not permitted to receive any correspondence, except for that received from attorneys, ministers, and the courts. 20. It has been the practice at the Platte County Jail to open and read all incoming mail that is not privileged. 21. Normal visiting hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday; attorneys and members of the clergy are allowed to visit at other reasonable times. 22. People are not allowed to visit inmates unless their names appear on an approved list of visitors. 23. The sheriff has withheld commissary privileges from an entire tank in situations where he has been unable to determine who among the group acted in a manner to cause the sheriff to take such action. 24. Those hired as guards at the Platte County Jail receive no specific training to prepare them for their duties as guards in a detention facility. 25. No formal classification of prisoners is made, and pretrial detainees for all offenses as well as those sentenced to serve time at the Platte County Jail are at times housed together in the two cell tank areas. Eighth Amendment cases are among the most difficult of all constitutional cases to determine. For, unlike many of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights, the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment is stated in relative rather than precise language. To make the problem of adjudication more difficult, the basic concept of the Eighth Amendment, which may be traced back to the Magna Carta, is “nothing less than the dignity of man” and involves “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 100-101, 78 S.Ct. 590, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958). The ascertainment of what must be considered constitutionally contrary to contemporary concepts of “the dignity of man” and accepted “standards of decency” within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment is, at least in some measure, aided by the particular data received in evidence and testimony in regard to the conditions of confinement in the Platte County Jail as viewed by disinterested but informed experts having no direct interest in the outcome of this pending case. Certainly judges should give appropriate consideration in Eighth Amendment cases to such data and the testimony of such witnesses from the general community, else their decisions may reflect merely their own predispositions in regard to contemporary concepts of “the dignity of man” and “evolving standards of decency.” Judges do not need to review historical data nor listen to expert testimony in order to determine whether a defendant is being held to answer an indictment filed in the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, as required by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution. The constitutional standards of those Amendments are precise and the factual circumstances are easily determined. The relative language of the Eighth Amendment, however, presents an entirely different juridical problem. Judge, now Mr. Justice Blackmun reviewed the controlling Supreme Court and Eighth Circuit Eighth Amendment cases in the leading case of Jackson v. Bishop, 404 F.2d 571, 576-579 (8th Cir. 1968). He noted at the outset of his discussion of those cases that the Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged the difficulty first noted almost a century ago in Wilkerson v. Utah, 99 U.S. 130, 135-136, 25 L.Ed. 345 (1878), that “would attend the effort to define with exactness the extent of the constitutional provision which provides that cruel and unusual punishment shall not be inflicted . . .” [Id. at 577], Mr. Justice Blackmun, in his summary of the Eighth Amendment cases in Jackson v. Bishop, stated that “so far as the Supreme Court cases are concerned, we have a flat recognition that the limits of the Eighth Amendment’s proscription are not easily or exactly defined, and we also have clear indications that the applicable standards are flexible . . . and that broad and idealistic concepts of dignity, civilized standards, humanity, and decency are useful and usable.” [Id. at 579], Holt v. Sarver (8th Cir. 1971) 442 F.2d 304, 308, quoted the following with approval from Sostre v. McGinnis (2nd Cir. 1971) 442 F.2d 178, 191: As judges we are obliged to school ourselves in such objective sources as historical usage, see Wilkerson v. Utah, 99 U.S. 130, 25 L.Ed. 345 (1870), practices in other jurisdictions, see Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349, 30 S.Ct. 544, 54 L.Ed. 793 (1910), and public opinion, see Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 666, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962), before we may responsibly exercise the power of judicial review to declare a punishment unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. [442 F.2d at 191]. We therefore state in some detail that which, in Mr. Justice Blackmun’s language in Jackson v. Bishop, we have found to be “useful and usable” in our determination of this Eighth Amendment case. While we shall make further and formal findings of fact in part V of this memorandum opinion, we believe, in light of the relative standard of the Eighth Amendment, that it is appropriate to make reference to particular testimony of the expert witnesses who testified at trial in regard to the conditions under which the plaintiffs are confined, most of them while awaiting trial. Those expert witnesses, many of admittedly national reputation, added considerable detail to the stipulated facts. All of those witnesses testified in light of their personal inspection and evaluation of the Platte County Jail. The Court, pursuant to the agreement of counsel and in their presence, personally examined the Platte County Jail on two separate occasions. Melvin T, Axilbund, staff director of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Correctional Facilities and Services since 1971 and principal author of the National Sheriffs Association publication “Inmates Legal Rights,” testified that the Platte County Jail failed to meet many of the standards officially adopted by various state legislatures, state departments of corrections, or standards officially promulgated by other appropriate state agencies which, unlike Missouri, have adopted legal standards for their respective states. Theodore James Gordon, acting chief of the Institutional Hygiene Division of the Environmental Health Administration of the District of Columbia, testified that the Platte County Jail “is totally, in my judgment, unfit for human inhabitation from a standard housing viewpoint as well as an environmental health and safety standpoint.” [Tr. 155]. He testified that if the Platte County Jail was in his jurisdiction, “I would recommend that the facility be closed down, the people taken out and an immediate effort and steps be taken to clean that institution up and comply with basic requirements, Public Health standards.” [Tr. 166]. James Victor Gagne, Jr., Superintendent of Corrections for the City of Kansas City, Missouri, and head of that city’s new Municipal Correctional Institution, testified that “at all times that I inspected the Platte County Jail it was generally dirty, there was trash scattered about the area, the mattresses, the pillows, everything concerning the jail was generally one of squalor.” [Tr. 170]. He further testified that “if no standards are adopted or changes made, I do not believe the jail should be allowed to operate.” [Tr. 217]. Donald C. Maase of the University of Illinois and the National Clearing House for Criminal Justice, Planning and Architecture, and author of that national organization’s guidelines for the planning and design of regional and community correctional centers for adults, testified that the existing Platte County Jail could not be refurbished in a manner that would comply with minimum National Clearing House Standards. [Tr. 230]. He was of the opinion, however, that it could be remodeled in a manner which would permit its possible use “as a short term holding facility during some period while a trial was in process." [Tr. 231-232]. Dr. Edward J. Twin, Executive Director of Kansas City General Hospital Medical Center, Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine, and professionally responsible for the establishment of a nationally known medical service unit in the Jackson County Jail, established pursuant to Part IV of the consent judgment and decree entered by this Court in Goldsby v. Carnes (W.D.Mo.1973) 365 F.Supp. at 406, testified that the Platte County Jail should be “closed until appropriate health care is provided.” [Tr. 263]. James D. H. Reefer, Director of the Community Services Department of Kansas City, Missouri, with over thirty-five years experience in the field of corrections, both federal, State, and local, since receiving his Master’s degree in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Michigan, testified that “something has to be done immediately for the proper care and protection of the prisoners” and that “if there are no improvements made in the Platte County Jail . . . prisoners should [not] be continued to be confined in that facility.” [Tr. 207]. Dr. Norge Winifred Jerome, Associate Professor of Nutrition at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who made a careful and detailed evaluation of the food served inmates of the Platte County Jail over a period of a representative month, testified that “the diet was inadequate by about one-third the national standard . extremely inadequate nutritionally” [Tr. 314], and that “if there was no way that the diet could .be changed” she had no reservations about recommending “against continuing to have persons housed in a place where they are fed only this diet . because you would, of course, be placing the individual at risk, risk of his health.” [Tr. 315]. James Bergfalk, Director of Corrections of Jackson County, Missouri, who was directly responsible for the administration of the Jackson County Jail at the time of trial, testified that “unless there are significant facility changes, and unless there are significant operations changes [in the Platte County Jail] as it relates to classification, as it relates to sanitation, health, things of that nature [no inmates should] continue to be confined in that facility.” [Tr. 331]. Mr. Bergfalk further testified that if significant changes were made, he believed that the present Platte County Jail “could be utilized for short-term holding; very short-term holding.” [Tr. 332-333]. Mr. Berg-falk defined a “short-term holding” as a period of time necessary “for intake, basic processing prior to arraignment it could possibly be used for holding through a trial period, if it is a short trial . I think anything in excess of seven days is improper.” [Tr. 332]. Dr. George Mallory Camp, who as stated in Part I, supra, was directly responsible for the direction of the Missouri Division of Corrections at the time of trial, testified that “if the Platte County Jail is continued to operate in the manner that it is and there are no physical improvements or changes . . . pretrial detainees . should [not] be confined in the Platte County Jail.” [Tr. 360-361]. Dr. Camp testified that until and unless substantial changes were made in the present Platte County Jail, the facility should not be permitted to operate for any purpose. [Tr. 389]. Dr. Camp further testified that if he had power under State law to do so, he would close the Platte County Jail because of its “failure to meet constitutional standards.” [Tr. 383]. Dr. Herbert C. Modlin, a member of the Staff of the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, was at the time of trial Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the American Medical Association project to investigate medical services in prisons and jails throughout the United States. That project was established at the request of and with the approval of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Correctional Facilities and Services. Dr. Modlin, who has been consultant for the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri and the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas for the past ten years, testified that “the place ought to be torn down, and I think I make that as a measured opinion, not some kind of emotional outcry . . . [i]t is just — well, it is a hundred years out of date.” [Tr. 420]. It is quite clear that all of the expert testimony reflected unanimous agreement that the Platte County Jail should be closed for all purposes until and unless substantial changes are made in the physical structure of that facility and in the manner it is presently being operated. The specific attention of each expert witness was focused on a different physical and operational aspect of the jail. Mr. Axilbund, for example, as staff director of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Correctional Facilities and Services, utilized data gathered from other states by that project’s study of jail standards and inspection systems on a national basis for his testimony.' Dr. Mod-lin’s perspective was that of the American Medical Association’s similar nationwide inquiry into medical and health services. Mr. Maase of the National Clearing House for Criminal Justice concentrated on the architectural deficiencies of the century-old building in which the Platte County Jail facility is located. Witnesses Camp, Gordon, Twin, Reefer, Jerome and Bergfalk all testified from their daily experience as professionals in various areas of the State and local corrections field. In general, the testimony of all of the experts reflected their familiarity with and application of various standards promulgated by other states and by various professional groups and organizations, such as the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, the National Sheriffs Association, and the National Correctional Association. The current special issue of The American Criminal Law Review, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Winter 1977), contains the “Tentative Draft of Standards Relating to the Legal Status of Prisoners,” proposed by the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association for adoption as one of the American Bar Association’s approved “Standards Relating to the Administration of Criminal Justice.” Just as tentative drafts of other Standards Relating to the Administration of Criminal Justice have been cited in judicial opinions in the past, we believe that the “Tentative Draft of Standards Relating to the Legal Status of Prisoners” will be cited in the future. The citation of a tentative draft or of a finally approved American Bar Association Standard Relating to the Administration of Criminal Justice, or the citation and approval of standards promulgated by other professional groups or organizations, of course, does not mean that the principles of law stated are the law of the land until and unless those principles are fully and directly accepted by a court deciding a particular case. But this is not to say that the various standards to which the expert witnesses made reference in their testimony are irrelevant and immaterial and therefore not entitled to appropriate consideration in the determination of this case. Clearly, however, proof of violation of one or more of those standards is not controlling or conclusive evidence that the manner in which the Platte County Jail is constructed, maintained and operated is necessarily a violation of the constitutional standard mandated by the Constitution of the United States. This Court fully recognizes that there are particular degrees “to which the prison officials may [depart] from desirable procedures or state standards [which] cannot be magnified into a fundamental constitutional error mandating a decree from this tribunal.” Burns v. Swenson, 430 F.2d 771, 776 (8th Cir. 1970). Nevertheless, in our judgment, evidence of failure to meet a standard promulgated by the National Sheriffs Association, for example, is relevant and material to the constitutional questions presented in this case and similar cases, although such evidence, standing alone, may not be determinative or conclusive in establishing a constitutional violation. Because experience in similar cases involving conditions of confinement in other correctional institutions reflects the existence of some degree of confusion in regard to the appropriate judicial treatment of standards promulgated by various professional groups and organizations, we deem it appropriate to discuss in greater detail the manner in which we have considered such standards in this case. III. Plaintiffs and amicus curiae have suggested that we make a substantial number of formal findings of fact in regard to various standards promulgated by national organizations such as the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice, Planning and Architecture; the American Medical Association; the American Bar Association Commission on Correctional Facilities and Services; the National Clearing House for Criminal Justice Planning and Architecture; and the National Sheriffs Association. Although it is clear under the virtually undisputed factual circumstances that the Platte County Jail and its present manner of operation do not in fact comply with those standards, defendants argue that the Supreme Court of the United States has not yet articulated any constitutional standards for jails and that therefore, plaintiffs and amicus curiae “have failed to prove that any minimum constitutional standards exist for county jails, and if such exist what they are.” [No. 15 of Defendants’ Proposed Conclusions of Law]. Defendants further argue that while there has been a showing that many different types of jail standards exist, actual compliance with such standards varies from state to state and within a particular state. Defendants maintain that there has been no showing that a majority of the states have adopted any particular standards or that the State of Missouri has adopted any of the standards proposed by the various national groups and organizations named above. Defendants, therefore, argue that standards promulgated by other states or by various professional groups and organizations may not be considered as relevant and material to any of the constitutional questions presented in this case. We have already indicated that we quite agree with the defendants’ suggestion that proof that the Platte County Jail, as it is presently constructed and operated, does not comply with a particular standard does not, standing alone, establish a violation of the Constitution of the United States. We do not agree, however, as we have also stated, that evidence of a failure to meet standards promulgated by recognized state and national bodies is not relevant and material in a case such as this. Chief Justice Warren’s plurality opinion announcing the judgment of the Court in Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 99, 78 S.Ct. 590, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958), took note of the relatively small number of Supreme Court cases construing “the principle of civilized treatment guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment.” He also noted that “[t]he exact scope of the constitutional phrase ‘cruel and unusual’ has not been detailed by this Court.” [Id. at 99, 78 S.Ct. at 597], He suggested, however, that “the basic policy reflected in these words is firmly established in the Anglo-American tradition of criminal justice.” [Id. at 99-100, 78 S.Ct. at 597]. Chief Justice Warren added that: The phrase in our Constitution was taken directly from the English Declaration of Rights of 1688, and the principle it represents can be traced back to the Magna Carta. The basic concept underlying the Eighth Amendment is nothing less than the dignity of man. . . The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society. . . . [Id. at 100-101, 78 S.Ct. at 597-598]. It is of more than historical interest to note that the Declaration of Principles of the American Correctional Association, which revised and reaffirmed principles initially stated by the American Prison Association in 1870, also spoke of “human dignity” and “standards of decency.” Principle XVI was stated in the following language: The principles of humanity and human dignity to which we subscribe, as well as the purposes of rehabilitation require that the offenders, while under the jurisdiction of the law enforcement and correctional agencies, be accorded the generally accepted standards of decent living and decent human relations. Their food, clothing and shelter should not be allowed to fall below the generally accepted standards, and they should be afforded the conventional conveniences made possible by our technological progress. Their health needs — both physical and mental — should be met in accordance with the best medical standards. Recreation should be recognized as a wholesome element of normal life. [Manual of Correctional Standards, PL Ex. 9, p. xxi]. We recognize, of course, that the primary responsibility for maintaining concepts of dignity and standards of decency in regard to persons charged and convicted of State law violations rests upon the Executive and Legislative branches of our State governments, subject, however, to the mandate of the Constitution of the United States. Long and consistent default on the part of those branches of State government has forced both State and federal courts to abandon their former “hands off” doctrine and to determine whether correctional institutions in general, and jails in particular, were being maintained and operated in accordance with constitutional standards. The correctional institution involved in this case is a county jail originally constructed over a hundred years ago to meet the needs of a then rural county. Of all institutions borrowed from England, the jail has successfully resisted change more than almost any other institution. Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville, who came to the United States in the early nineteenth century to examine America’s experiment with penitentiaries, were shocked to find that jails in their old familiar form existed side by side with what was then a new and radical experiment in the treatment of persons convicted of crime. In their work entitled On the Penitentiary System of the United States and Its Application In France, H. R. Lantz, ed., So. Ill. Univ. Press, 1964, p. 49, they noted that in the American transplant of jails from England, “nothing has been changed; disorder, confusion, mixture of different ages and moral characters, all the vices of the old system still exist." The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, appointed in 1971 by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) to formulate national criminal justice standards and goals for crime reduction and prevention, opened the chapter on jails (in its 1973 Report on Corrections by stating the following: Remote from public view and concern, the jail has evolved more by default than by plan. Perpetuated without major change from the days of Alfred the Great, it has been a disgrace to every generation. [Id. at 273]. When that Commission stated on page 275 that “[t]he most striking inadequacy of jails is their abominable physical condition,” it did no more than reiterate the findings of the 1967 Task Force Report on Corrections of The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. [PI. Ex. 10]. That Report reviewed the 1965 National Survey of Corrections of 3,500 jails in the United States and concluded that “[n]ot only are the great majority of these facilities old, but many do not even meet the minimum standards in sanitation, living space, and segregation of different ages and types of offenders that have obtained generally in the rest of corrections for several decades.” [Id. at 75]. The Presidential Commission recognized that “[m]ost rural counties cannot afford the personnel, facilities, and services a good short-term institution should have” and recommended that “[s]mall jurisdictions should arrange to contract with nearby metropolitan areas for all the needs they cannot meet effectively themselves.” [Id. at 80]. In 1970, acting in response to a special call from the Chief Justice of the United States, the American Bar Association established the Commission on Correctional Facilities and Services. In November, 1975 that Commission published a five year report for the years 1970-1975 entitled When Society Pronounces Judgment. [Am.Cur. Ex.37]. In commenting on the Commission’s statewide jail standards and inspection systems project, it concluded that “[t]he nation’s jails remained a blight on the correctional scene, offering perhaps the most degrading and inefficient environment for handling offenders in the whole spectrum of correctional institutions and services.” [Id. at 69]. Various reports and surveys of Missouri jails establish that Missouri has ignored its jails as has the rest of the country. The Jails of Missouri the 1967 Report of the Governor’s Citizens Committee on Delinquency and Crime, concluded on its examination and evaluation of various typical jails throughout the State of Missouri that: The individual reports of the jails evaluated in the Citizens Committee survey, unfortunately, but not surprisingly, reflect that Missouri’s jails fail to meet minimum standards of physical adequacy, segregation of inmates, administrative procedures, personnel, inmate employment or activities. The latter, basic to any rehabilitative effort, is virtually absent in our jails. Inmates sit in idleness, despair, isolation from the community, daily becoming more hostile, apathetic, dependent and less capable of meeting the responsibilities of normal citizenship, [id. at 3] [Am.Cur.Ex.8]. The Committee’s statement of the problem of jails in Missouri is consistent with the statements of the national problem by the national commissions to which we have made reference. The Committee summarized by stating the following: The history of jails is a gruesome chronicle of a social-legal misadventure in handling society’s villains, failures, friendless, poor, rebels, and other arrested citizens. It is not misleading to state that jails in this country, including Missouri, seem to have been built and operated in a manner purposely designed to be: —damaging when they should be constructive; —disorganized when they should be orderly; —filthy when they should be clean; —debilitating when they should be rehabilitating; —depressing when they should be enlightening; —dangerous when they should be safe. [Id. at 1]. The 1976 Missouri Action Plan For Public Safety: Criminal Justice Goals, Standards and Action Plans for the State of Missouri, a report made by the Missouri Department of Public Safety at the request of Governor Bond, accepted the conclusions of the 1967 report to an earlier Governor of Missouri and noted that “surprisingly little has been done to upgrade correctional services.” [Id. at 4] [Am.Cur.Ex.17]. The report also took note of the consequences of continuing Executive and Legislative neglect of the State of Missouri’s jail problem when it accurately reported that: The civil and constitutional rights of pretrial detainees have been the subject of substantially increased litigation in the federal courts in recent years. Correctional authorities are oftentimes required to make costly and immediate modifications to detention facilities ranging from physical facility alterations to revised programming. [Id. at 4]. We believe that the historical factual data concerning jails, as contained in the exhibits in evidence, and the testimony of the expert witnesses in regard to standards must be given appropriate consideration in our judicial determination of whether the Platte County Jail, as constructed, maintained, and operated, is in compliance with minimum constitutional standards. We shall therefore discuss the degree to which the Platte County Jail can be said to be in compliance with the standards approved by various national groups and organizations. IV. The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Planning and Architecture has promulgated ten minimum standards for detention facilities, entitled “Basic Architectural Planning Criteria.” [Pl.Ex.32], The Platte County Jail does not comply with nine of the Clearinghouse’s ten criteria; the only criterion it complies with mandates a maximum residential capacity of less than 400 inmates. The American Medical Association has established a project for the purpose of adopting minimal health care standards for jails. That project is approved by the American Bar Association Commission on Correctional Facilities and Services, which requested the assistance of the American Medical Association after finding that many jails visited by the American Bar Association Commission lacked or had deplorable medical services. Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 38 is a summary of Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 13, and both of those exhibits reflect the minimum standards which the American Medical Association project will include in its final report. Plaintiffs’ Exhibit No. 38 states seven minimal standards that have received the consensus approval of the American Medical Association Advisory Committee. None of those standards are presently met by the Platte County Jail. The Platte County Jail also fails to meet the three basic “self-evident” standards set out on pages 3 and 4 of Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 2, “Inmates’ Legal Rights,” the handbook of the National Sheriffs Association. As the Jail is currently maintained and operated, the inmates of the Jail are not accorded the following rights, as defined in the handbook: The first right, concerning personal safety and welfare, as set out on page 9 and explained on pages 9-10; the second right, concerning cruel and unusual punishment, as set out on page 11 and explained on pages 11-12; the third right, concerning a healthful environment, as set out on page 13 and explained on pages 13-16; the sixth right, concerning the presumption of innocence for prisoners awaiting trial, as set out on page 19 and explained on pages 19-20; the eighth right, concerning discipline consistent with due process, as set out on page 22 and explained on pages 22-23; the ninth right, concerning the procedure for imposing punishment, as set out on page 24 and explained on pages 24-26; the tenth right, concerning discipline of prisoners by prisoners, as set out and explained on page 27; the twelfth right, concerning consultation with attorneys, as set out and explained on page 30; the fourteenth right, concerning prisoners’ rights to prepare legal papers, as set out on page 33 and explained on pages 33-34; the sixteenth right, concerning grievance procedure as set out on page 37; the nineteenth right, concerning visitation and mail, as set out on page 42 and explained on pages 42-43; and the twentieth right, concerning participation in programs, as set out on page 44 and explained on pages 44^45. The Platte County Jail, as it is presently operated, does not comply with the following standards promulgated by the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals and published in its volume, Corrections [Pl.Ex.1]: Standard 2.1, “Access to Courts,” pages 23-25; Standard 2.2, “Access to Legal Services,” pages 26-28; Standard 2.4, “Protection Against Personal Abuse,” pages 31-33; Standard 2.5, “Healthful Surroundings,” pages 34-35; Standard 2.6, “Medical Care,” pages 36-37; Standard 2.7, “Searches,” pages 38-40; Standard 2.8, “Nondiscriminatory Treatment,” pages 41-42; Standard 2.9, “Rehabilitation,” pages 43-45; Standard 2.11, “Rules of Conduct,” pages 49-50; Standard 2.12, “Disciplinary Procedures,” pages 51-53; Standard 2.13, “Procedures for Nondisciplinary Changes of Status,” pages 54-55; Standard 2.14, “Grievance Procedure,” pages 56-57; Standard 2.15, “Free Expression and Association,” pages 58-62; Standard 2.16, “Exercise of Religious Beliefs and Practices,” pages 63-65; Standard 2.17, “Access to the Public,” pages 66-69; Standard 2.18, ‘'Remedies for Violation of an Offender’s Rights,” pages 70-72; Standard 4.8, “Rights of Pretrial Detainees,” pages 133-135; Standard 4.9, “Programs for Pretrial Detainees,” pages 136-137; Standard 9.4, “Adult Intake Services,” pages 296-297; Standard 9.5, “Pretrial Detention Admission Process,” pages 298-299; Standard 9.6, “Staffing Patterns,” pages 300-301; Standard 9.7, “Internal Policies,” pages 302-303; Standard 9.8, “Local Correctional Facility Programming,” pages 304-305; and Standard 9.9, “Jail Release Programs,” pages 306-307. Although it is clear that the Platte County Jail does not comply with many of the standards contained in the recently published “Tentative Draft of Standards Relating to the Legal Status of Prisoners,” recommended by the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association, we do not discuss those standards in any detail because that tentative draft was not published at the time of trial and was therefore not a part of the evidence before the Court in this case. Our formal findings of fact are made in the next part of this opinion. V. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. Fred Ahrens was a pretrial detainee at the Platte County Jail from August 11, 1973 to September 30, 1974, upon a charge of burglary II and stealing. He is an adult citizen of the United States. (Stipulation 1) 2. The defendants in this case are the duly elected sheriff and judges of the County Court of Platte County, Missouri. (Stipulations 2, 3) 3. In connection with their testimony during the trial of this case, witnesses for plaintiffs and amicus curiae visited the Platte County Jail. (Axilbund, Tr. 88, 91; Gordon, Tr. 116; Gagne, Tr. 169-170; Maase, Tr. 225; Twin, Tr. 252; Reefer, Tr. 292, and Amicus Curiae’s Ex. 38, p. 1; Bergfalk, Tr. 320; Camp, Tr. 350; Modlin, Tr. 405) 4. The budget of the Platte County Jail is insufficient to meet the basic needs of those persons incarcerated in the Platte County Jail. (Camp, Tr. 355-356; Allen, Tr. 435) 5. The State of Missouri does not assume any responsibility regarding the operation or conditions found in jails within the State, including the Platte County Jail. (Camp, Tr. 387) 6. Minimum jail standards legislation has been introduced but not passed in the Missouri legislature during each of the past several sessions. (Amicus Curiae’s Ex. 14-16; Camp, Tr. 358, 362) 7. Persons confined at the Missouri State Penitentiary are convicted of felonies and sentenced to confinement for a period of at least two years. (Camp, Tr. 351) 8. Inmates at the Missouri State Penitentiary have outside recreation available; detainees at the Platte County Jail do not. (Camp, Tr. 352; the Court, Tr. 202, 203) 9. Inmates at the Missouri State Penitentiary have greater ability to move around within the institution than detainees of the Platte County Jail have. (Camp, Tr. 353) 10. Inmates at the Missouri State Penitentiary have much greater access to telephones than the detainees at the Platte County Jail have. (Camp, Tr. 353) 11. Inmates at the Missouri State Penitentiary have more frequent visitation than the detainees at the Platte County Jail have. (Camp, Tr. 354) 12. Convicted inmates at the Missouri State Penitentiary have far greater freedoms and liberties than pretrial detainees, who are presumed to be innocent, incarcerated at the Platte County Jail. (Camp, Tr. 351-352) 13. The degree of security in terms of internal movement by individuals within the maximum security institution for the State of Missouri, the Missouri State Penitentiary, is much less than the degree of security experienced by inmates in the Platte County Jail. (Camp, Tr. 352) Physical Conditions 14. The Platte County Jail, built over 100 years ago, consists of two tanks containing three 4-person cells and three 2-per-son cells not located in any tank. (Ahrens, Tr. 7, 8; Thomas, Tr. 469; Plaintiffs’ Ex. 23; Stipulation 4) 15. The tanks are referred to as the “North Tank” and the “South Tank.” (Ah-rens, Tr. 7, 8; Thomas, Tr. 483; Plaintiffs’ Ex. 23) 16. The tanks are surrounded on two sides by runways to which inmates have no access. (Ahrens, Tr. 7, 8; Plaintiffs’ Ex. 23) 17. All windows and radiators in the area containing the tanks are located on the outer perimeter of the runways. (Ahrens, Tr. 7, 8; Plaintiffs’ Ex. 23) 18. The South Tank contains a shower, sink, and toilet with the shower located directly above the toilet. (Ahrens, Tr. 7; Plaintiffs’ Ex. 23) 19. The North Tank contains a sink and toilet, but no shower, (Ahrens, Tr. 7; Plaintiffs’ Ex. 23) 20. The plumbing facilities are inadequate in that they are deteriorated and obviously old. (Maase, Tr. 228) 21. A very high percentage of those persons housed in the Platte County Jail are pretrial detainees. (Thomas, Tr. 501; Defendants’ Ex. 1, 2) 22. The average stay of an inmate being held at the Platte County Jail as a pretrial detainee on a felony charge is 3-4 months. (Thomas, Tr. 516) 23. Each tank measures approximately 11 ft. by 21 ft., including the three cells and the common area. (Ahrens, Tr. 22; Plaintiffs’ Ex. 23) 24. The four-person cells inside the tanks contain approximately 42 to 48 square feet. (Gordon, Tr. 143) 25. The allocation of space per inmate in the Platte County Jail fails to meet constitutional standards. 26. The size of the cells in the Platte County Jail fails to meet constitutional standards. 27. Clean bedding is not given to an inmate at admission, and clean mattresses are not provided. (Bergfalk, Tr. 323; Thomas, Tr. 486; Ahrens, Tr. 446) 28. Inmates are forced to sleep on filthy mattresses without mattress covers, sheets and pillow cases. (Ahrens, Tr. 16, 50; Camp, Tr. 355; Stipulation 7) 29. Constitutional standards in regard to clean quarters are not complied with in the operation of the Platte County Jail. 30. Blankets are rarely washed and are generally filthy. (Ahrens, Tr. 17; Reefer, Tr. 295; Stipulation 6) 31. When blankets are washed they are not disinfected. (Thomas, Tr. 470) 32. The Platte County Jail practices in regard to the issuance of adequate clean mattresses, sheets, blankets, towels,