ABSTRACT
Respondent inmates brought the class action in Federal District Court challenging the constitutionality of numerous conditions of confinement and practices in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federally operated short-term custodial facility in New York City designed primarily to house pretrial detainees. Respondent was subsequently charged with violating the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, and, at a pretrial hearing, the trial court ordered suppression of the pills. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed, holding that the shoulder bag search did not constitute a valid search incident to a lawful arrest or a valid inventory search of respondent’s belongings. The Court of Appeals concluded that the decision in Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U. S. 527—holding that a negligent deprivation of a prison inmate’s property by state officials does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment if an adequate postdeprivation state remedy exists—should extend also to intentional deprivations of property.
