Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/09-1233.pdf
Page Number: 84.0

10 

BROWN v. PLATA 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

lation  controls  will  solve  California’s  prison  health  care
problems . . . are simply wrong.’ ”  Juris. App. 282a. 

The State proposed several remedies other than a mas-
sive release of prisoners, but the three-judge court, seem-
ingly  intent  on  attacking  the  broader  problem  of  general
overcrowding,  rejected  all  of  the  State’s  proposals.    In 
doing so, the court made three critical errors.

First, the court did not assess those proposals and other
remedies in light of conditions proved to exist at the time
the  release  order  was  framed.    Had  more  recent  evidence 
been  taken  into  account,  a  less  extreme  remedy  might 
have been shown to be sufficient. 

Second,  the  court  failed  to  distinguish  between  condi-
tions  that  fall  below  the  level  that  may  be  desirable  as  a
matter of public policy and conditions that do not meet the 
minimum  level  mandated  by  the  Constitution.  To  take 
one  example,  the  court  criticized  the  California  system
because  prison  doctors  must  conduct  intake  exams  in 
areas separated by folding screens rather than in separate 
rooms, creating conditions that “do not allow for appropri-
ate  confidentiality.”  Id.,  at  88a.  But  the  legitimate  pri-
vacy  expectations  of  inmates  are  greatly  diminished,  see 
Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U. S. 517, 525–526 (1984), and this
Court  has  never  suggested  that  the  failure  to  provide
private  consultation  rooms  in  prisons  amounts  to  cruel
and unusual punishment.

Third,  the  court  rejected  alternatives  that  would  not
have provided “ ‘immediate’ ” relief.  Juris. App. 148a.  But 
nothing  in  the  PLRA  suggests  that  public  safety  may  be
sacrificed  in  order  to  implement  an  immediate  remedy
rather  than  a  less  dangerous  one  that  requires  a  more 
extended but reasonable period of time. 

If the three-judge court had not made these errors, it is 
entirely  possible  that  an  adequate  but  less  drastic  reme-
dial  plan  could  have  been  crafted.    Without  up-to-date 
information, it is not possible to specify what such a plan