Howes v. Fields

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2011 1

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is

being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.

The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been

prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.

See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

HOWES, WARDEN v. FIELDS

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

No. 10–680. Argued October 4, 2011—Decided February 21, 2012

Respondent Fields, a Michigan state prisoner, was escorted from his

prison cell by a corrections officer to a conference room where he was

questioned by two sheriff’s deputies about criminal activity he had al-

legedly engaged in before coming to prison. At no time was Fields

given Miranda warnings or advised that he did not have to speak

with the deputies. As relevant here: Fields was questioned for be-

tween five and seven hours; Fields was told more than once that he

was free to leave and return to his cell; the deputies were armed, but

Fields remained free of restraints; the conference room door was

sometimes open and sometimes shut; several times during the inter-

view Fields stated that he no longer wanted to talk to the deputies,

but he did not ask to go back to his cell; after Fields confessed and

the interview concluded, he had to wait an additional 20 minutes for

an escort and returned to his cell well after the hour when he gener-

ally retired.

The trial court denied Fields’ motion to suppress his confession

under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436, and he was convicted. The

Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed, rejecting Fields’ contention that

his statements should have been suppressed because he was subject-

ed to custodial interrogation without a Miranda warning. The Unit-

ed States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan subse-

quently granted Fields habeas relief under 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1).

Affirming, the Sixth Circuit held that the interview was a custodial

interrogation within the meaning of Miranda, reasoning that Mathis

v. United States, 391 U. S. 1, “clearly established,” §2254(d)(1), that

isolation from the general prison population, combined with question-

ing about conduct occurring outside the prison, makes any such in-

terrogation custodial per se.

2 HOWES v. FIELDS

Syllabus

Held:

1. This Court’s precedents do not clearly establish the categorical

rule on which the Sixth Circuit relied. The Court has repeatedly de-

clined to adopt any such rule. See, e.g., Illinois v. Perkins, 496 U. S.

292. The Sixth Circuit misread Mathis, which simply held, as rele-

vant here, that a prisoner who otherwise meets the requirements for

Miranda custody is not taken outside the scope of Miranda because

he was incarcerated for an unconnected offense. It did not hold that

imprisonment alone constitutes Miranda custody. Nor does the

statement in Maryland v. Shatzer, 559 U. S. ___, ___, that “[n]o one

questions that [inmate] Shatzer was in custody for Miranda purpos-

es” support a per se rule. It means only that the issue of custody was

not contested in that case. Finally, contrary to respondent’s sugges-

tion, Miranda itself did not hold that the inherently compelling pres-

sures of custodial interrogation are always present when a prisoner is

taken aside and questioned about events outside the prison walls.

Pp. 4–7.

2. The Sixth Circuit’s categorical rule—that imprisonment, ques-

tioning in private, and questioning about events in the outside world

create a custodial situation for Miranda purposes—is simply wrong.

Pp. 8–13.

(a) The initial step in determining whether a person is in Miran-

da custody is to ascertain, given “all of the circumstances surround-

ing the interrogation,” how a suspect would have gauged his freedom

of movement. Stansbury v. California, 511 U. S. 318, 322, 325. How-

ever, not all restraints on freedom of movement amount to Miranda

custody. See, e.g., Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U. S. 420, 423. Shatzer,

distinguishing between restraints on freedom of movement and Mi-

randa custody, held that a break in Miranda custody between a sus-

pect’s invocation of the right to counsel and the initiation of subse-

quent questioning may occur while a suspect is serving an

uninterrupted term of imprisonment. If a break in custody can occur,

it must follow that imprisonment alone is not enough to create a cus-

todial situation within the meaning of Miranda. At least three strong

grounds support this conclusion: Questioning a person who is already

in prison does not generally involve the shock that very often accom-

panies arrest; a prisoner is unlikely to be lured into speaking by a

longing for prompt release; and a prisoner knows that his questioners

probably lack authority to affect the duration of his sentence. Thus,

service of a prison term, without more, is not enough to constitute

Miranda custody. Pp. 8–12.

(b) The other two elements in the Sixth Circuit’s rule are like-

wise insufficient. Taking a prisoner aside for questioning may neces-

sitate some additional limitations on the prisoner’s freedom of move-

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 3

Syllabus

ment, but it does not necessarily convert a noncustodial situation into

Miranda custody. Isolation may contribute to a coercive atmosphere

when a nonprisoner is questioned, but questioning a prisoner in pri-

vate does not generally remove him from a supportive atmosphere

and may be in his best interest. Neither does questioning a prisoner

about criminal activity outside the prison have a significantly greater

potential for coercion than questioning under otherwise identical cir-

cumstances about criminal activity within the prison walls. The co-

ercive pressure that Miranda guards against is neither mitigated nor

magnified by the location of the conduct about which questions are

asked. Pp. 12–13.

3. When a prisoner is questioned, the determination of custody

should focus on all of the features of the interrogation. The record in

this case reveals that respondent was not taken into custody for Mi-

randa purposes. While some of the facts lend support to his argu-

ment that Miranda’s custody requirement was met, they are offset by

others. Most important, he was told at the outset of the interroga-

tion, and reminded thereafter, that he was free to leave and could go

back to his cell whenever he wanted. Moreover, he was not physical-

ly restrained or threatened, was interviewed in a well-lit, average-

sized conference room where the door was sometimes left open, and

was offered food and water. These facts are consistent with an envi-

ronment in which a reasonable person would have felt free to termi-

nate the interview and leave, subject to the ordinary restraints of life

behind bars. Pp. 13–16.

617 F. 3d 813, reversed.

ALITO, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J.,

and SCALIA, KENNEDY, THOMAS, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. GINSBURG, J.,

filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which

BREYER and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., joined.

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 1

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the

preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to

notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-

ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order

that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

_________________

No. 10–680

_________________

CAROL HOWES, WARDEN, PETITIONER v. RANDALL

LEE FIELDS

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

[February 21, 2012]

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

held that our precedents clearly establish that a prisoner

is in custody within the meaning of Miranda v. Arizona,

384 U. S. 436 (1966), if the prisoner is taken aside and

questioned about events that occurred outside the prison

walls. Our decisions, however, do not clearly establish

such a rule, and therefore the Court of Appeals erred in

holding that this rule provides a permissible basis for

federal habeas relief under the relevant provision of the

Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996

(AEDPA), 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1). Indeed, the rule ap-

plied by the court below does not represent a correct inter-

pretation of our Miranda case law. We therefore reverse.

I

While serving a sentence in a Michigan jail, Randall

Fields was escorted by a corrections officer to a conference

room where two sheriff’s deputies questioned him about

allegations that, before he came to prison, he had engaged

in sexual conduct with a 12-year-old boy. In order to get to

the conference room, Fields had to go down one floor and

2 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

pass through a locked door that separated two sections

of the facility. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 66a, 69a. Fields

arrived at the conference room between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.1

and was questioned for between five and seven hours.2

At the beginning of the interview, Fields was told that

he was free to leave and return to his cell. See id., at 70a.

Later, he was again told that he could leave whenever he

wanted. See id., at 90a. The two interviewing deputies

were armed during the interview, but Fields remained free

of handcuffs and other restraints. The door to the confer-

ence room was sometimes open and sometimes shut. See

id., at 70a–75a.

About halfway through the interview, after Fields had

been confronted with the allegations of abuse, he became

agitated and began to yell. See id., at 80a, 125a. Fields

testified that one of the deputies, using an expletive, told

him to sit down and said that “if [he] didn’t want to coop-

erate, [he] could leave.” Id., at 89a; see also id., at 70a–

71a. Fields eventually confessed to engaging in sex acts

with the boy. According to Fields’ testimony at a suppres-

sion hearing, he said several times during the interview

that he no longer wanted to talk to the deputies, but he

did not ask to go back to his cell prior to the end of the

interview. See id., at 92a–93a.

When he was eventually ready to leave, he had to wait

——————

1 Fields testified that he left his cell around 8 p.m. and that the in-

terview began around 8:30 p.m. App. to Pet. for Cert. 77a. Both the

Michigan Court of Appeals and the Sixth Circuit stated that the inter-

view began between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. See id., at 4a, 54a.

2 The Court of Appeals stated that the interview lasted for approxi-

mately seven hours, see id., at 4a, a figure that appears to be based

on the testimony of one of the interviewing deputies, see id., at 123a.

Fields put the number of hours between five and five and a half, saying

the interview began around 8:30 p.m. and continued until 1:30 a.m. or 2

a.m. See id., at 77a. The Michigan Court of Appeals stated that the

interview ended around midnight, which would put the length of the

interview at between three and five hours.

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 3

Opinion of the Court

an additional 20 minutes or so because a corrections of-

ficer had to be summoned to escort him back to his cell,

and he did not return to his cell until well after the hour

when he generally retired.3 At no time was Fields given

Miranda warnings or advised that he did not have to

speak with the deputies.

The State of Michigan charged Fields with criminal

sexual conduct. Relying on Miranda, Fields moved to

suppress his confession, but the trial court denied his

motion. Over the renewed objection of defense counsel,

one of the interviewing deputies testified at trial about

Fields’ admissions. The jury convicted Fields of two

counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, and the

judge sentenced him to a term of 10 to 15 years of impris-

onment. On direct appeal, the Michigan Court of Appeals

affirmed, rejecting Fields’ contention that his statements

should have been suppressed because he was subjected to

custodial interrogation without a Miranda warning. The

court ruled that Fields had not been in custody for pur-

poses of Miranda during the interview, so no Miranda

warnings were required. The court emphasized that

Fields was told that he was free to leave and return to his

cell but that he never asked to do so. The Michigan Su-

preme Court denied discretionary review.

Fields then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in

Federal District Court, and the court granted relief. The

Sixth Circuit affirmed, holding that the interview in the

conference room was a “custodial interrogation” within

the meaning of Miranda because isolation from the general

prison population combined with questioning about con-

duct occurring outside the prison makes any such interro-

gation custodial per se. The Court of Appeals reasoned

that this Court clearly established in Mathis v. United

——————

3 Fields testified that his normal bedtime was 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m.

See id., at 78a.

4 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

States, 391 U. S. 1 (1968), that “Miranda warnings must

be administered when law enforcement officers remove an

inmate from the general prison population and interrogate

him regarding criminal conduct that took place outside the

jail or prison.” 617 F. 3d 813, 820 (CA6 2010); see also id.,

at 818 (“The central holding of Mathis is that a Miranda

warning is required whenever an incarcerated individual

is isolated from the general prison population and interro-

gated, i.e.[,] questioned in a manner likely to lead to self-

incrimination, about conduct occurring outside of the

prison”). Because Fields was isolated from the general

prison population and interrogated about conduct occur-

ring in the outside world, the Court of Appeals found that

the state court’s decision was contrary to clearly estab-

lished federal law as determined by this Court in Mathis.

617 F. 3d, at 823.

We granted certiorari. 562 U. S. ___ (2011).

II

Under AEDPA, a federal court may grant a state pris-

oner’s application for a writ of habeas corpus if the state-

court adjudication pursuant to which the prisoner is held

“resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an

unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal

law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United

States.” 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1). In this context, “clearly

established law” signifies “the holdings, as opposed to the

dicta, of this Court’s decisions.” Williams v. Taylor, 529

U. S. 362, 412 (2000).

In this case, it is abundantly clear that our precedents

do not clearly establish the categorical rule on which the

Court of Appeals relied, i.e., that the questioning of a

prisoner is always custodial when the prisoner is removed

from the general prison population and questioned about

events that occurred outside the prison. On the contrary,

we have repeatedly declined to adopt any categorical rule

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 5

Opinion of the Court

with respect to whether the questioning of a prison inmate

is custodial.

In Illinois v. Perkins, 496 U. S. 292 (1990), where we

upheld the admission of un-Mirandized statements elicit-

ed from an inmate by an undercover officer masquerading

as another inmate, we noted that “[t]he bare fact of cus-

tody may not in every instance require a warning even when

the suspect is aware that he is speaking to an official, but

we do not have occasion to explore that issue here.” Id., at

299 (emphasis added). Instead, we simply “reject[ed] the

argument that Miranda warnings are required whenever

a suspect is in custody in a technical sense and converses

with someone who happens to be a government agent.”

Id., at 297.

Most recently, in Maryland v. Shatzer, 559 U. S. ___

(2010), we expressly declined to adopt a bright-line rule

for determining the applicability of Miranda in prisons.

Shatzer considered whether a break in custody ends the

presumption of involuntariness established in Edwards v.

Arizona, 451 U. S. 477 (1981), and, if so, whether a prison-

er’s return to the general prison population after a custo-

dial interrogation constitutes a break in Miranda custody.

See 559 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 3–4). In considering the

latter question, we noted first that “[w]e have never decid-

ed whether incarceration constitutes custody for Miranda

purposes, and have indeed explicitly declined to address

the issue.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 13) (citing Perkins,

supra, at 299; emphasis added). The answer to this ques-

tion, we noted, would “depen[d] upon whether [incar-

ceration] exerts the coercive pressure that Miranda was

designed to guard against—the ‘danger of coercion [that]

results from the interaction of custody and official inter-

rogation.’ ” 559 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 13) (quoting

Perkins, supra, at 297).

In concluding that our precedents establish a categorical

rule, the Court of Appeals placed great weight on the

6 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

decision in Mathis, but the Court of Appeals misread the

holding in that case. In Mathis, an inmate in a state

prison was questioned by an Internal Revenue agent and

was subsequently convicted for federal offenses. The

Court of Appeals held that Miranda did not apply to this

interview for two reasons: A criminal investigation had

not been commenced at the time of the interview, and

the prisoner was incarcerated for an “unconnected offense.”

Mathis v. United States, 376 F. 2d 595, 597 (CA5 1967).

This Court rejected both of those grounds for distinguish-

ing Miranda, 391 U. S., at 4, and thus the holding in

Mathis is simply that a prisoner who otherwise meets the

requirements for Miranda custody is not taken outside the

scope of Miranda by either of the two factors on which

the Court of Appeals had relied. Mathis did not hold

that imprisonment, in and of itself, is enough to constitute

Miranda custody.4 Nor, contrary to respondent’s submis-

sion, see Brief for Respondent 14, did Oregon v. Mathia-

son, 429 U. S. 492, 494 (1977) (per curiam), which simply

restated in dictum the holding in Mathis.

The Court of Appeals purported to find support for its

per se rule in Shatzer, relying on our statement that “[n]o

one questions that Shatzer was in custody for Miranda

purposes” when he was interviewed. 559 U. S., at ___ (slip

op., at 13). But this statement means only that the issue

of custody was not contested before us. It strains credulity

to read the statement as constituting an “unambiguous

conclusion” or “finding” by this Court that Shatzer was in

custody. 617 F. 3d, at 822.

Finally, contrary to respondent’s suggestion, see Brief

for Respondent 12–15, Miranda itself did not clearly es-

——————

4 Indeed,

it is impossible to tell from either the opinion of this Court

or that of the court below whether the prisoner’s interview was routine

or whether there were special features that may have created an

especially coercive atmosphere.

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 7

Opinion of the Court

tablish the rule applied by the Court of Appeals. Miranda

adopted a “set of prophylactic measures” designed to ward

off the “ ‘inherently compelling pressures’ of custodial

interrogation,” Shatzer, supra, at ___ (slip op., at 4) (quot-

ing Miranda, 384 U. S., at 467), but Miranda did not hold

that such pressures are always present when a prisoner

is taken aside and questioned about events outside the

prison walls. Indeed, Miranda did not even establish that

police questioning of a suspect at the station house is

always custodial. See Mathiason, supra, at 495 (declining

to find that Miranda warnings are required “simply be-

cause the questioning takes place in the station house, or

because the questioned person is one whom the police

suspect”).

In sum, our decisions do not clearly establish that a

prisoner is always in custody for purposes of Miranda

whenever a prisoner is isolated from the general prison

population and questioned about conduct outside the

prison.5

——————

5 The state-court decision applied the traditional context-specific

analysis to determine whether the circumstances of respondent’s

interrogation gave rise to “the coercive pressure that Miranda was

designed to guard against.” Shatzer, 559 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 13).

The court first observed: “That a defendant is in prison for an unrelated

offense when being questioned does not, without more, mean that he

was in custody for the purpose of determining whether Miranda warn-

ings were required.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 56a (internal quotation

marks omitted and emphasis added). In this case, the court noted, the

“defendant was unquestionably in custody, but on a matter unrelated to

the interrogation.” Ibid. The Sixth Circuit concluded that the state

court thereby limited Miranda in a way rejected by Mathis v. United

States, 391 U. S. 1 (1968), and “curtail[ed] the warnings to be given

persons under interrogation by officers based on the reason why the

person is in custody.” Id., at 4–5. We think the better reading is that

the state court merely meant to draw a distinction between incarcera-

tion and Miranda custody. This reading is supported by the state

court’s subsequent consideration of whether the facts of the case were

likely to create an atmosphere of coercion. App. to Pet. for Cert. 56a.

8 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

III

Not only does the categorical rule applied below go well

beyond anything that is clearly established in our prior

decisions, it is simply wrong. The three elements of that

rule—(1) imprisonment, (2) questioning in private, and (3)

questioning about events in the outside world—are not

necessarily enough to create a custodial situation for

Miranda purposes.

A

As used in our Miranda case law, “custody” is a term of

art that specifies circumstances that are thought generally

to present a serious danger of coercion. In determining

whether a person is in custody in this sense, the initial

step is to ascertain whether, in light of “the objective cir-

cumstances of the interrogation,” Stansbury v. Califor-

nia, 511 U. S. 318, 322–323, 325 (1994) (per curiam), a

“reasonable person [would] have felt he or she was not at

liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave.” Thomp-

son v. Keohane, 516 U. S. 99, 112 (1995). And in order to

determine how a suspect would have “gauge[d]” his “free-

dom of movement,” courts must examine “all of the cir-

cumstances surrounding the interrogation.” Stansbury,

supra, at 322, 325 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Relevant factors include the location of the questioning,

see Shatzer, supra, at ___–___ (slip op., at 13–16), its

duration, see Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U. S. 420, 437–438

(1984), statements made during the interview, see Mathi-

ason, supra, at 495; Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U. S.

652, 665 (2004); Stansbury, supra, at 325, the presence or

absence of physical restraints during the questioning, see

New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. 649, 655 (1984), and the

release of the interviewee at the end of the questioning,

see California v. Beheler, 463 U. S. 1121, 1122–1123

(1983) (per curiam).

Determining whether an individual’s freedom of move-

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 9

Opinion of the Court

ment was curtailed, however, is simply the first step in the

analysis, not the last. Not all restraints on freedom of

movement amount to custody for purposes of Miranda.

We have “decline[d] to accord talismanic power” to the

freedom-of-movement inquiry, Berkemer, supra, at 437,

and have instead asked the additional question whether

the relevant environment presents the same inherently

coercive pressures as the type of station house questioning

at issue in Miranda. “Our cases make clear . . . that the

freedom-of-movement test identifies only a necessary and

not a sufficient condition for Miranda custody.” Shatzer,

559 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 14).

This important point is illustrated by our decision in

Berkemer v. McCarty, supra. In that case, we held that

the roadside questioning of a motorist who was pulled over

in a routine traffic stop did not constitute custodial inter-

rogation. Id., at 423, 441–442. We acknowledged that “a

traffic stop significantly curtails the ‘freedom of action’ of

the driver and the passengers,” and that it is generally “a

crime either to ignore a policeman’s signal to stop one’s car

or, once having stopped, to drive away without permis-

sion.” Id., at 436. “[F]ew motorists,” we noted, “would feel

free either to disobey a directive to pull over or to leave the

scene of a traffic stop without being told they might do so.”

Ibid. Nevertheless, we held that a person detained as a

result of a traffic stop is not in Miranda custody because

such detention does not “sufficiently impair [the detained

person’s] free exercise of his privilege against self-

incrimination to require that he be warned of his consti-

tutional rights.” 468 U. S., at 437. As we later put it,

the “temporary and relatively nonthreatening detention in-

volved in a traffic stop or Terry stop does not constitute

Miranda custody,” Shatzer, supra, at ___ (slip op., at 14)

(citation omitted). See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U. S. 1 (1968).

It may be thought that the situation in Berkemer—the

questioning of a motorist subjected to a brief traffic stop—

10 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

is worlds away from those present when an inmate is

questioned in a prison, but the same cannot be said of

Shatzer, where we again distinguished between restraints

on freedom of movement and Miranda custody. Shatzer,

as noted, concerned the Edwards prophylactic rule, which

limits the ability of the police to initiate further question-

ing of a suspect in Miranda custody once the suspect

invokes the right to counsel. We held in Shatzer that this

rule does not apply when there is a sufficient break in

custody between the suspect’s invocation of the right to

counsel and the initiation of subsequent questioning. See

559 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 13-16). And, what is signifi-

cant for present purposes, we further held that a break

in custody may occur while a suspect is serving a term in

prison. If a break in custody can occur while a prisoner is

serving an uninterrupted term of imprisonment, it must

follow that imprisonment alone is not enough to create a

custodial situation within the meaning of Miranda.

There are at least three strong grounds for this conclu-

sion. First, questioning a person who is already serving a

prison term does not generally involve the shock that very

often accompanies arrest. In the paradigmatic Miranda

situation—a person is arrested in his home or on the

street and whisked to a police station for questioning—

detention represents a sharp and ominous change, and the

shock may give rise to coercive pressures. A person who is

“cut off from his normal life and companions,” Shatzer,

supra, at ___ (slip op., at 7), and abruptly transported from

the street into a “police-dominated atmosphere,” Miranda,

384 U. S., at 456, may feel coerced into answering

questions.

By contrast, when a person who is already serving a

term of imprisonment is questioned, there is usually no

such change. “Interrogated suspects who have previously

been convicted of crime live in prison.” Shatzer, 559 U. S.,

at ___ (slip op., at 14). For a person serving a term of

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 11

Opinion of the Court

incarceration, we reasoned in Shatzer, the ordinary re-

strictions of prison life, while no doubt unpleasant, are

expected and familiar and thus do not involve the same

“inherently compelling pressures” that are often present

when a suspect is yanked from familiar surroundings in

the outside world and subjected to interrogation in a police

station. Id., at ___ (slip op., at 4).

Second, a prisoner, unlike a person who has not been

sentenced to a term of incarceration, is unlikely to be

lured into speaking by a longing for prompt release. When

a person is arrested and taken to a station house for inter-

rogation, the person who is questioned may be pressured

to speak by the hope that, after doing so, he will be al-

lowed to leave and go home. On the other hand, when a

prisoner is questioned, he knows that when the question-

ing ceases, he will remain under confinement. Id., at ___–

___, n. 8 (slip op., at 14–15, n. 8).

Third, a prisoner, unlike a person who has not been

convicted and sentenced, knows that the law enforcement

officers who question him probably lack the authority to

affect the duration of his sentence. Id., at ___–___ (slip

op., at 14–15). And “where the possibility of parole exists,”

the interrogating officers probably also lack the power to

bring about an early release. Ibid. “When the suspect has

no reason to think that the listeners have official power

over him, it should not be assumed that his words are

motivated by the reaction he expects from his listeners.”

Perkins, 496 U. S., at 297. Under such circumstances,

there is little “basis for the assumption that a suspect . . .

will feel compelled to speak by the fear of reprisal for

remaining silent or in the hope of [a] more lenient treat-

ment should he confess.” Id., at 296–297.

In short, standard conditions of confinement and associ-

ated restrictions on freedom will not necessarily implicate

the same interests that the Court sought to protect when

it afforded special safeguards to persons subjected to

12 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

custodial interrogation. Thus, service of a term of impris-

onment, without more, is not enough to constitute Miran-

da custody.

B

The two other elements included in the Court of Ap-

peals’ rule—questioning in private and questioning about

events that took place outside the prison—are likewise

insufficient.

Taking a prisoner aside for questioning—as opposed

to questioning the prisoner in the presence of fellow in-

mates—does not necessarily convert a “noncustodial situa-

tion . . . to one in which Miranda applies.” Mathiason, 429

U. S., at 495. When a person who is not serving a prison

term is questioned, isolation may contribute to a coercive

atmosphere by preventing family members, friends, and

others who may be sympathetic from providing either

advice or emotional support. And without any such assis-

tance, the person who is questioned may feel overwhelm-

ing pressure to speak and to refrain from asking that the

interview be terminated.

By contrast, questioning a prisoner in private does not

generally remove the prisoner from a supportive atmos-

phere. Fellow inmates are by no means necessarily

friends. On the contrary, they may be hostile and, for a

variety of reasons, may react negatively to what the ques-

tioning reveals. In the present case, for example, would

respondent have felt more at ease if he had been ques-

tioned in the presence of other inmates about the sexual

abuse of an adolescent boy? Isolation from the general

prison population is often in the best interest of the inter-

viewee and, in any event, does not suggest on its own

the atmosphere of coercion that concerned the Court in

Miranda.

It is true that taking a prisoner aside for questioning

may necessitate some additional limitations on his free-

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 13

Opinion of the Court

dom of movement. A prisoner may, for example, be re-

moved from an exercise yard and taken, under close

guard, to the room where the interview is to be held. But

such procedures are an ordinary and familiar attribute of

life behind bars. Escorts and special security precautions

may be standard procedures regardless of the purpose for

which an inmate is removed from his regular routine and

taken to a special location. For example, ordinary prison

procedure may require such measures when a prisoner is

led to a meeting with an attorney.

Finally, we fail to see why questioning about criminal

activity outside the prison should be regarded as having a

significantly greater potential for coercion than question-

ing under otherwise identical circumstances about crimi-

nal activity within the prison walls. In both instances,

there is the potential for additional criminal liability and

punishment. If anything, the distinction would seem to

cut the other way, as an inmate who confesses to miscon-

duct that occurred within the prison may also incur ad-

ministrative penalties, but even this is not enough to tip

the scale in the direction of custody. “The threat to a

citizen’s Fifth Amendment rights that Miranda was de-

signed to neutralize” is neither mitigated nor magnified by

the location of the conduct about which questions are

asked. Berkemer, 468 U. S., at 435, n. 22.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals’ categorical rule

is unsound.

IV

A

When a prisoner is questioned, the determination of

custody should focus on all of the features of the interroga-

tion. These include the language that is used in summon-

ing the prisoner to the interview and the manner in which

the interrogation is conducted. See Yarborough, 541 U. S.,

at 665. An inmate who is removed from the general prison

14 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

population for questioning and is “thereafter . . . subjected

to treatment” in connection with the interrogation “that

renders him ‘in custody’ for practical purposes . . . will be

entitled to the full panoply of protections prescribed by

Miranda.” Berkemer, 468 U. S., at 440.

“Fidelity to the doctrine announced in Miranda requires

that it be enforced strictly, but only in those types of situa-

tions in which the concerns that powered the decision are

implicated.” Id., at 437; see Shatzer, 559 U. S., at ___ (slip

op., at 9); Mathiason, supra, at 495. Confessions voluntar-

ily made by prisoners in other situations should not be

suppressed. “Voluntary confessions are not merely a

proper element in law enforcement, they are an unmiti-

gated good, essential to society’s compelling interest in

finding, convicting, and punishing those who violate the

law.” Shatzer, supra, at ___ (slip op., at 9) (internal quota-

tion marks and citations omitted).

B

The record in this case reveals that respondent was not

taken into custody for purposes of Miranda. To be sure,

respondent did not invite the interview or consent to it in

advance, and he was not advised that he was free to de-

cline to speak with the deputies. The following facts also

lend some support to respondent’s argument that Miran-

da’s custody requirement was met: The interview lasted

for between five and seven hours in the evening and con-

tinued well past the hour when respondent generally went

to bed; the deputies who questioned respondent were

armed; and one of the deputies, according to respondent,

“[u]sed a very sharp tone,” App. to Pet. for Cert. 76a, and,

on one occasion, profanity, see id., at 77a.

These circumstances, however, were offset by others.

Most important, respondent was told at the outset of the

interrogation, and was reminded again thereafter, that he

could leave and go back to his cell whenever he wanted.

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 15

Opinion of the Court

See id., at 89a–90a (“I was told I could get up and leave

whenever I wanted”); id., at 70a–71a. Moreover, respond-

ent was not physically restrained or threatened and was

interviewed in a well-lit, average-sized conference room,

where he was “not uncomfortable.” Id., at 90a; see id., at

71a, 88a–89a. He was offered food and water, and the

door to the conference room was sometimes left open. See

id., at 70a, 74a. “All of these objective facts are consistent

with an interrogation environment in which a reasonable

person would have felt free to terminate the interview and

leave.” Yarborough, supra, at 664–665.

Because he was in prison, respondent was not free to

leave the conference room by himself and to make his own

way through the facility to his cell. Instead, he was es-

corted to the conference room and, when he ultimately

decided to end the interview, he had to wait about 20

minutes for a corrections officer to arrive and escort him to

his cell. But he would have been subject to this same

restraint even if he had been taken to the conference room

for some reason other than police questioning; under no

circumstances could he have reasonably expected to be

able to roam free.6 And while respondent testified that he

——————

6 Respondent did not testify to the contrary. The following colloquy

occurred at his Miranda hearing:

“Q. You’re not generally allowed to just roam around Lenawee County

Jail on your own, are you?

“A. No, I never have.

“Q. So wouldn’t it make sense to you, since you had that experience,

that in fact you would have been escorted just like you were escorted

. . . into this conference room?

“A. That makes common sense.

“Q. So when they said that you were free to leave and you get up—

could get up and go and all you had to do was tell them you wanted to

go, in your mind, did you understand that to mean that somebody

would come get you and take you back to your cell?

“A. But that doesn’t give me freedom to just get up and walk away.

“Q. I understand it doesn’t—

“A. So, no.

16 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of the Court

“was told . . . if I did not want to cooperate, I needed to go

back to my cell,” these words did not coerce cooperation by

threatening harsher conditions. App. to Pet. for Cert. 71a;

see id., at 89a (“I was told, if I didn’t want to cooperate,

I could leave”). Returning to his cell would merely have

returned him to his usual environment. See Shatzer,

supra, at ___ (slip op., at 14) (“Interrogated suspects who

have previously been convicted of crime live in prison.

When they are released back into the general prison popu-

lation, they return to their accustomed surroundings and

daily routine—they regain the degree of control they had

over their lives prior to the interrogation”).

Taking into account all of the circumstances of the

questioning—including especially the undisputed fact that

respondent was told that he was free to end the question-

ing and to return to his cell—we hold that respondent was

not in custody within the meaning of Miranda.

* * *

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is

Reversed.

——————

“Q. The question is this, sir, not whether you had freedom to get up

and walk away, but did you understand that what that meant was that

a jailer would come get you and—

“A. No—

“Q. —take you back to your cell?

“A. I did not understand that.

“Q. You didn’t?

“A. No.

“Q. Why not? That’s how you got there.

“A. Because I did not know if a jailer would take me back or if one of

those gentlemen would take me back.

“Q. But you understood that, if you asked, one of them or a jailer would

take you back to your cell?

“A. I assumed that.

“Q. And you believed that to be true?

“A. I assumed that.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 91a–92a.

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 1

Opinion of GINSBURG, J.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

_________________

No. 10–680

_________________

CAROL HOWES, WARDEN, PETITIONER v. RANDALL

LEE FIELDS

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

[February 21, 2012]

JUSTICE GINSBURG, with whom JUSTICE BREYER and

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR join, concurring in part and dissent-

ing in part.

Given this Court’s controlling decisions on what counts

as “custody” for Miranda purposes, I agree that the law is

not “clearly established” in respondent Fields’s favor. See,

e.g., Maryland v. Shatzer, 559 U. S. ___, ___ (2010) (slip

op., at 13–16); Thompson v. Keohane, 516 U. S. 99, 112

(1995). But I disagree with the Court’s further determina-

tion that Fields was not in custody under Miranda. Were

the case here on direct review, I would vote to hold that

Miranda precludes the State’s introduction of Fields’s

confession as evidence against him.

Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), reacted to

police interrogation tactics that eroded the Fifth Amend-

ment’s ban on compulsory self-incrimination. The opinion

did so by requiring interrogators to convey to suspects

the now-familiar warnings: The suspect is to be informed,

prior to interrogation, that he “has a right to remain si-

lent, that any statement he does make may be used as

evidence against him, and that he has a right to the pres-

ence of an attorney, either retained or appointed.” Id., at

444.

Under what circumstances are Miranda warnings re-

quired? Miranda tells us “in all settings in which [a per-

2 HOWES v. FIELDS

Opinion of GINSBURG, J.

son’s] freedom of action is curtailed in any significant

way.” Id., at 467. Given the reality that police interroga-

tors “trad[e] on the weakness of individuals,” i.e., their

“insecurity about [themselves] or [their] surroundings,”

id., at 455, the Court found the preinterrogation warnings

set out in the opinion “indispensable,” id., at 469. Those

warnings, the Court elaborated, are “an absolute prerequi-

site in overcoming the inherent pressures of the interroga-

tion atmosphere,” id., at 468; they “insure” that the sus-

pect is timely told of his Fifth Amendment privilege, and

his freedom to exercise it, id., at 469.

Fields, serving time for disorderly conduct, was, of

course, “i[n] custody,” but not “for purposes of Miranda,”

the Court concludes. Ante, at 14. I would not train, as the

Court does, on the question whether there can be custody

within custody. Instead, I would ask, as Miranda put it,

whether Fields was subjected to “incommunicado interro-

gation . . . in a police-dominated atmosphere,” 384 U. S., at

445, whether he was placed, against his will, in an inher-

ently stressful situation, see id., at 468, and whether his

“freedom of action [was] curtailed in any significant way,”

id., at 467. Those should be the key questions, and to each

I would answer “Yes.”

As the Court acknowledges, Fields did not invite or

consent to the interview. Ante, at 14. He was removed

from his cell in the evening, taken to a conference room in

the sheriff ’s quarters, and questioned by two armed depu-

ties long into the night and early morning. Ibid. He was

not told at the outset that he had the right to decline to

speak with the deputies. Ibid. Shut in with the armed

officers, Fields felt “trapped.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 71a.

Although told he could return to his cell if he did not want

to cooperate, id., at 71a–72a, Fields believed the deputies

“would not have allowed [him] to leave the room,” id., at

72a. And with good reason. More than once, “he told the

officers . . . he did not want to speak with them anymore.”

Cite as: 565 U. S. ____ (2012) 3

Opinion of GINSBURG, J.

617 F. 3d 813, 815 (CA6 2010). He was given water, App.

to Pet. for Cert. 74a, but not his evening medications,

id., at 79a.* Yet the Court concludes that Fields was in

“an interrogation environment in which a reasonable person

would have felt free to terminate the interview and leave.”

Ante, at 15 (quoting Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U. S.

652, 665 (2004)).

Critical to the Court’s judgment is “the undisputed fact

that [Fields] was told that he was free to end the question-

ing and to return to his cell.” Ante, at 17. Never mind

the facts suggesting that Fields’s submission to the over-

night interview was anything but voluntary. Was Fields

“held for interrogation”? See Miranda, 384 U. S., at 471.

Brought to, and left alone with, the gun-bearing deputies,

he surely was in my judgment.

Miranda instructed that such a person “must be clearly

informed that he has the right to consult with a lawyer

and to have the lawyer with him during interrogation.”

Ibid. Those warnings, along with “warnings of the right

to remain silent and that anything stated can be used in

evidence against [the speaker],” Miranda explained, are

necessary “prerequisite[s] to [an] interrogation” compati-

ble with the Fifth Amendment. Ibid. Today, for people

already in prison, the Court finds it adequate for the police

to say: “You are free to terminate this interrogation and

return to your cell.” Such a statement is no substitute for

one ensuring that an individual is aware of his rights.

For the reasons stated, I would hold that the “incommu-

nicado interrogation [of Fields] in a police-dominated

atmosphere,” id., at 445, without informing him of his

rights, dishonored the Fifth Amendment privilege Miran-

da was designed to safeguard.

——————

* Each night, Fields took an antidepressant and, due to his kidney

transplant surgery, two antirejection medications. App. to Pet. for

Cert. 79a.