Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 found that it was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause...

 to perform intrusive body searches on pre-trial detainees.

Significance

This case arose as a challenge to the conditions under which pretrial defendants are confined. The petitioners claimed that in the absence of a conviction

Conviction

In law, a conviction is the verdict that results when a court of law finds a defendant guilty of a crime.The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal . In Scotland and in the Netherlands, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which counts as an acquittal...

, subjecting incarcerated defendants automatically to the same conditions as convicted felons was unconstitutional punishment

Punishment

Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group....

. The federal district court agreed with this view, holding that defendants could only be deprived of liberty as a matter of "compelling necessity".
It was also determined that The Supreme Court felt that the possible innocence of pre-trial detainees should not prevent corrections officials from taking necessary steps to maintain their facility.