with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Marshall, and Justice Blackmun join, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
How a court describes its standard of review when a prison regulation infringes fundamental constitutional rights often has far less consequence for the inmates than the actual showing that the court demands of the State in order to uphold the regulation. This case provides a prime example.
There would not appear to be much difference between the question whether a prison regulation that burdens fundamental rights in the quest for security is “needlessly broad”— the standard applied by the District Court and the Court of Appeals — and this Court’s requirement that the regulation must be “reasonably related to legitimate penological interests,” ante, at 89, and may not represent “an ‘exaggerated response’ to those concerns.” Ante, at 87. But if the standard can be satisfied by nothing more than a “logical connection” between the regulation and any legitimate penological concern perceived by a cautious warden, see ante, at 94, n. (emphasis in original), it is virtually meaningless. Application of the standard would seem to permit disregard for inmates’ constitutional rights whenever the imagination of the *101warden produces a plausible security concern and a deferential trial court is able to discern a logical connection between that concern and the challenged regulation. Indeed, there is a logical connection between prison discipline and the use of bullwhips on prisoners; and security is logically furthered by a total ban on inmate communication, not only with other inmates but also with outsiders who conceivably might be interested in arranging an attack within the prison or an escape from it. Thus, I dissent from Part II of the Court’s opinion.1
I am able to join Part III-B because the Court’s invalidation of the marriage regulation does not rely on a rejection of a standard of review more stringent than the one announced in Part II. See ante, at 97. The Court in Part III-B concludes after careful examination that, even applying a “reasonableness” standard, the marriage regulation must fail because the justifications asserted on its behalf lack record support. Part III-A, however, is not only based on an application of the Court’s newly minted standard, see ante, at 89, but also represents the product of a plainly improper appellate encroachment into the factfinding domain of the District Court. See Icicle Seafoods, Inc. v. Worthington, 475 U. S. 709, 714 (1986). Indeed, a fundamental difference between the Court of Appeals and this Court in this case — and the principal point of this dissent — rests in the respective ways the two courts have examined and made use of the trial record. In my opinion the Court of Appeals correctly held that the trial court’s findings of fact adequately supported its judgment sustaining the inmates’ challenge to the mail *102regulation as it has been administered at the Renz Correctional Center in Cedar City, Missouri. In contrast, this Court sifts the trial testimony on its own2 in order to uphold a general prohibition against correspondence between unrelated inmates.
I
This is not a case in which it is particularly helpful to begin by determining the “proper” standard of review, as if the result of that preliminary activity would somehow lighten the Court’s duty to decide this case. The precise issue before us is evident from respondents’ complaint, which makes clear that they were not launching an exclusively facial attack against the correspondence regulation. Respondents instead leveled their primary challenge against the application of this regulation to mail addressed to or sent by inmates at Renz:
“20. On information and belief, correspondence between non-family members at different institutions within the Missouri Division of Correction system is permitted at all institutions with the exception of Renz. On information and belief, defendant Turner and other employees of the Missouri Division of Corrections have a pattern and practice of refusing to permit inmates of Renz to correspond with or receive letters from inmates at other correctional institutions, a situation which appears to be unique within the Missouri Division of Corrections.
“21. On information and belief, the reason given for refusing such correspondence is that Superintendent Turner feels that correspondence between inmates is not *103in the best interest of any inmate. In this manner defendant Turner has violated the constitutional right of every inmate residing at Renz and any inmate who desires to correspond with an inmate residing at Renz.” Amended Complaint, App. 11-12.
On their face, the regulations generally applicable to the Missouri Correctional System permit correspondence between unrelated inmates “if the classification/treatment team of each inmate deems it in the best interests of the parties involved.”3 After a bench trial, however, the District Court found that there was a total ban on such correspondence at Renz:
“6. The provisions of the divisional correspondence regulation allowing the classification/treatment team of each inmate to prohibit inmate-to-inmate correspondence have not been followed at Renz. Theoretically the classification/treatment team uses psychological reports, conduct violations, and progress reports in deciding whether to permit correspondence. At Renz, however, the rule as practiced is that inmates may not write non-family inmates or receive mail from non-family inmates. The more restrictive practice is set forth in the Renz Inmate Orientation Booklet presented to each inmate upon arrival at Renz. The restrictive rule at Renz is commonly known throughout the Missouri Correctional System.
“7. The Renz rule against inmate-to-inmate correspondence is enforced without a determination that the security or order of Renz or the rehabilitation of the inmate would be harmed by allowing the particular correspondence to proceed and without a determination that there is no less restrictive alternative to resolve any legitimate concerns of the Department of Corrections short of prohibiting all correspondence.
*104“8. Inmates at most institutions in the Missouri Correctional System are permitted to correspond with inmates in most other institutions. The greatest restriction on inmate correspondence is practiced at Renz.” 586 F. Supp. 589, 591 (WD Mo. 1984).
“13. Correspondence between inmates has been denied despite evidence that the correspondence was desired simply to maintain wholesome friendships.” Id., at 591-592.
These factual findings, which bear out respondents’ complaint, served as the basis for the District Court’s injunction:
“Even if some restriction on inmate-to-inmate correspondence can be justified, the regulations and practices at bar must fall. The prohibitions are unnecessarily sweeping. Correspondence is a sufficiently protected right that it cannot be cut off simply because the recipient is in another prison, and the inmates cannot demonstrate special cause for the correspondence. . . .
“Defendants have failed to demonstrate that the needs of Renz are sufficiently different to justify greater censorship than is applied by other well-run institutions.” Id., at 596.
After reviewing the District Court’s findings and conclusions, the Court of Appeals held:
“[Wjithout strong evidence that the relationship in question is or will be abusive, the connection between permitting the desired correspondence or marriage and the subsequent commission of a crime caused thereby is simply too tenuous to justify denial of those constitutionally protected rights. As to the security concerns, we think the prison officials’ authority to open and read all prisoner mail is sufficient to meet the problem of illegal conspiracies.” 777 F. 2d 1307, 1315-1316 (CA8 1985) (emphasis added).
*105The Court of Appeals’ affirmance of the District Court thus ultimately rests upon a conclusion with which I fully agree: absent a showing that prison officials would be unable to anticipate and avoid any security problems associated with the inmate-to-inmate mail that would result from application of the correspondence rule as it is written and as enforced at other Missouri prisons, the total ban at Renz found by the District Court offends the First Amendment.
The ostensible breadth of the Court of Appeals’ opinion4 furnishes no license for this Court to reverse with another unnecessarily broad holding. Moreover, even under the Court’s newly minted standard, the findings of the District Court that were upheld by the Court of Appeals clearly dictate affirmance of the judgment below.
I — I HH
Without explicitly disagreeing with any of the District Court’s findings of fact, this Court rejects the trial judge’s conclusion that the total ban on correspondence between inmates at Renz and unrelated inmates in other correctional facilities was “unnecessarily sweeping” or, to use the language the Court seems to prefer, was an “exaggerated response” to the security problems predicted by petitioner’s expert witnesses. Instead, the Court bases its holding upon its own highly selective use of factual evidence.
The reasons the Court advances in support of its conclusion include: (1) speculation about possible “gang problems,” escapes, and secret codes, ante, at 91-93; (2) the fact that the correspondence regulation “does not deprive prisoners of all means of expression,” ante, at 92; and (3) testimony indicat*106ing “that it would be impossible to read every piece of inmate-to-inmate correspondence,” ante, at 93. None of these reasons has a sufficient basis in the record to support the Court’s holding on the mail regulation.
Speculation about the possible adverse consequences of allowing inmates in different institutions to correspond with one another is found in the testimony of three witnesses: William Turner, the Superintendent of Renz Correctional Center; Sally Halford, the Director of the Kansas Correctional Institution at Lansing; and David Blackwell, the former Director of the Division of Adult Institutions of the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Superintendent Turner was unable to offer proof that prohibiting inmate-to-inmate correspondence prevented the formation or dissemination of escape plots. He merely asserted that the mail regulation assisted him in his duties to maintain security at Renz “[f]rom the standpoint that we don’t have escapes, we don’t have the problems that are experienced in other institutions.” 2 Tr. 75. Nor did the Superintendent’s testimony establish that permitting such correspondence would create a security risk; he could only surmise that the mail policy would inhibit communications between institutions in the early stages of an uprising. Id., at 76. The Superintendent’s testimony is entirely consistent with the District Court’s conclusion that the correspondence regulation was an exaggerated response to the potential gang problem at Renz.5
*107Neither of the outside witnesses had any special knowledge of conditions at Renz. Ms. Halford had reviewed the prison’s rules and regulations relevant to this case, had discussed the case with Superintendent Turner, and had visited Renz for “a couple of hours.” 3 id., at 146. Mr. Blackwell was charged with the overall management of Missouri’s adult correctional facilities and did not make daily decisions concerning the inmate correspondence permitted at Renz. Id., at 259-260. He was “not sure” if he was specifically familiar with the policy at Renz that an inmate is allowed to correspond with inmates of other institutions only if they are members of the inmate’s immediate family. 4 id., at 44.
Neither of them, and indeed, no other witness, even mentioned the possibility of the use of secret codes by inmates. The Kansas witness testified that Kansas followed a policy of “open correspondence.. .. An inmate can write to whomever they please.” 3 id., at 158. She identified two problems - that might result from that policy. First, in the preceding year a male inmate had escaped from a minimum security area and helped a female inmate to escape and remain at large for over a week. The witness speculated that they must have used the mails to plan their escape. The trial judge discounted this testimony because there was no proof that this or any other escape had been discussed in correspondence. Id., at 158-159. Second, the Kansas witness suggested that a ban on inmate correspondence would frustrate the development of a “gang problem.” Id., at 160. In view of her acknowledgment that no gang problem had developed in Kansas despite its open correspondence rule, id., at *108158, the trial judge presumably also attached little weight to this prediction. Indeed, there is a certain irony in the fact that the Kansas expert witness was unable to persuade her superiors in Kansas to prohibit inmate-to-inmate correspondence, id., at 168, yet this Court apparently finds no reason to discount her speculative testimony.6
The Missouri witness, Mr. Blackwell, also testified that one method of trying to discourage the organization of “gangs” of prisoners with ethnic or religious similarities is “by restricting correspondence.” Id., at 267. He did not testify, however, that a total ban on inmate-to-inmate correspondence was an appropriate response to the potential gang problem. Indeed, he stated that the State’s policy did not include a “carte blanche” denial of such correspondence,7 and he did not even know that Renz was enforcing such a total ban.8 His assertion that an open correspon*109dence policy would pose security problems was backed only by speculation:
“[A]: ... I am sure that there are some inmates at Renz who would write other inmates at other facilities in an illegitimate fashion. I also feel certain that there is more of a probability that they would be writing about things other than just sound positive letter writing, given the nature of the offenders at Renz.
“Q: What percentage of the [mail] inmate-to-inmate from Renz Correctional Center have you personally read?
“A: Very, very little.
“Q: So you are basically speculating about what inmates might write about?
“A: Yes.” 4 id., at 82-83.
Quite clearly, Mr. Blackwell’s estimate of the problems justifying some restrictions on inmate-to-inmate correspondence provides no support for the Renz policy that he did not even know about and that did not conform to the more liberal policy applicable to other institutions in which more serious offenders are incarcerated.9 As the District Court concluded, petitioners “failed to demonstrate that the needs of Renz are sufficiently different to justify greater censorship than is applied by other well-run institutions.” 586 F. Supp., at 596.
*110The Court also relies on the fact that the inmates at Renz were not totally deprived of the opportunity to communicate with the outside world. This observation is simply irrelevant to the question whether the restrictions that were enforced were unnecessarily broad. Moreover, an evenhanded acceptance of this sort of argument would require upholding the Renz marriage regulation — which the Court quite properly invalidates — because that regulation also could have been even more restrictive.
The Court’s final reason for concluding that the Renz prohibition on inmate-to-inmate correspondence is reasonable is its belief that it would be “impossible” to read all such correspondence sent or received by the inmates at Renz. No such finding of impossibility was made by the District Court, nor would it be supported by any of the findings that it did make. The record tells us nothing about the total volume of inmate mail sent or received at Renz; much less does it indicate how many letters are sent to, or received from, inmates at other institutions. As the State itself observed at oral argument about the volume of correspondence:
“The difficulty with our position in the case is, since we had never permitted [mail between inmates], we didn’t have an idea except to say that — you know, except that we had 8,000 inmates, and we figured that they would write.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 14.
The testimony the Court does cite to support its conclusion that reviewing inmate-to-inmate mail would be an insurmountable task was provided by Mr. Blackwell and Ms. Halford. Mr. Blackwell testified that “[t]here is no way we can read all the mail nor would we want to ... it is impossible.” 4 Tr. 41-43.10 Ms. Halford gave similar testi*111mony,11 but again she was referring to “all incoming mail,” not to inmate-to-inmate correspondence and, of course, her testimony related to Kansas, not to the relatively small facility at Renz.12 In short, the evidence in the record is plainly *112insufficient to support the Court’s de novo finding of impossibility.13 It does, however, adequately support this finding by the District Court that the Court ignores:
“14. The staff at Renz has been able to scan and control outgoing and incoming mail, including inmate-to-inmate correspondence.” 586 F. Supp., at 592.
Because the record contradicts the conclusion that the administrative burden of screening all inmate-to-inmate mail would be unbearable, an outright ban is intolerable. The blanket prohibition enforced at Renz is not only an “excessive response” to any legitimate security concern; it is inconsistent with a consensus of expert opinion — including Kansas correctional authorities — that is far more reliable than the speculation to which this Court accords deference.14
h — I hH l-H
The contrasts between the Court’s acceptance of the challenge to the marriage regulation as overbroad and its rejection of the challenge to the correspondence rule are striking *113and puzzling.15 The Court inexplicably expresses different views about the security concerns common to prison marriages and prison mail. In the marriage context expert speculation about the security problems associated with “love triangles” is summarily rejected, while in the mail context speculation about the potential “gang problem” and the possible use of codes by prisoners receives virtually total deference. Moreover, while the Court correctly dismisses as a defense to the marriage rule the speculation that the inmate’s spouse, once released from incarceration, would attempt to aid the inmate in escaping,16 the Court grants virtually total credence to similar speculation about escape plans concealed in letters.
In addition, the Court disregards the same considerations it relies on to invalidate the marriage regulation when it turns to the mail regulation. The marriage rule is said to sweep too broadly because it is more restrictive than the routine practices at other Missouri correctional institutions, but the mail rule at Renz is not an “exaggerated response” even though it is more restrictive than practices in the remainder of the State. The Court finds the rehabilitative value of marriage apparent, but dismisses the value of corresponding with a friend who is also an inmate for the reason that, communication with the outside world is not totally prohibited. The Court relies on the District Court’s finding that the marriage regulation operated on the basis of “excessive paternal*114ism” toward female inmates, ante, at 99, but rejects the same court’s factual findings on the correspondence regulation. Unfathomably, while rejecting the Superintendent’s concerns about love triangles as an insufficient and invalid basis for the marriage regulation, the Court apparently accepts the same concerns as a valid basis for the mail regulation.17
*115In pointing out these inconsistencies, I do not suggest that the Court’s treatment of the marriage regulation is flawed; as I stated, I concur fully in that part of its opinion. I do suggest that consistent application of the Court’s reasoning necessarily leads to a finding that the mail regulation applied at Renz is unconstitutional.18
> l-H
To the extent that this Court affirms the judgment of the Court of Appeals, I concur in its opinion. I respectfully dissent from the Court’s partial reversal of that judgment on the basis of its own selective forays into the record. When all *116the language about deference and security is set to one side, the Court’s erratic use of the record to affirm the Court of Appeals only partially may rest on an unarticulated assumption that the marital state is fundamentally different from the exchange of mail in the satisfaction, solace, and support it affords to a confined inmate. Even if such a difference is recognized in literature, history, or anthropology, the text of the Constitution more clearly protects the right to communicate than the right to marry. In this case, both of these rights should receive constitutional recognition and protection.
The Court’s rather open-ended “reasonableness” standard makes it much too easy to uphold restrictions on prisoners’ First Amendment rights on the basis of administrative concerns and speculation about possible security risks rather than on the basis of evidence that the restrictions are needed to further an important governmental interest. Judge Kaufman’s opinion in Abdul Wali v. Coughlin, 754 F. 2d 1015, 1033 (CA2 1985), makes a more careful attempt to strike a fair balance between legitimate penological concerns and the well-settled proposition that inmates do not give up all constitutional rights by virtue of incarceration.
The Court cites portions of the trial transcript and the amicus curiae brief filed by the State of Texas, ante, at 91, 93, but completely ignores the findings of fact that were made by the District Court and that bind appellate courts unless clearly erroneous. Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 52(a). The Court does not and could not deem these particular findings clearly erroneous.
586 F. Supp. 589, 591 (WD Mo. 1984).
The Court of Appeals may have used unnecessarily sweeping language in its opinion:
“We conclude that the exchange of inmate-to-inmate mail is not presumptively dangerous nor inherently inconsistent with legitimate penological objectives. We therefore affirm the district court’s application of the Martinez strict scrutiny standard and its decision finding the Renz correspondence rule unconstitutional.” 777 F. 2d, at 1313.
Superintendent Turner had not experienced any problem with gang warfare at Renz. 2 Tr. 117. He had not found any correspondence between gang members coming into Renz. Id., at 118. He also conceded that it would be possible to screen out correspondence that posed the danger of leading to gang warfare:
“Q: Is there any reason that you could not read correspondence from other institutions to determine if these people were writing about gang warfare or something like that?
“A: I think from the standpoint of the dictates of the department and, of course, the dictates of the court, I could if there was a problem. From the *107standpoint of dealing with these people individually or personally, no. It would be a problem.” Ibid.
“Q: Now, let’s limit it to people who you suspect might be involved in gang warfare, for example. Do you have any reason to say it would be impossible to read all the mail of those particular people?
“A: Those that we know of that have been identified, no, it wouldn’t be impossible.” Id., at 119.
There is a further irony. While Missouri ostensibly does not have sufficient resources to permit and screen inmate-to-inmate mail, Kansas apparently lacks sufficient resources to ban it. Ms. Halford testified that open correspondence was not abrogated in the Kansas correctional system despite security concerns because her superiors felt that it was “too much of an effort to restrict it, that it tied up staff to send out all forms to the various and sundry institutions. So I think we’re all basically in agreement that even though it is a problem to have open correspondence, the reason that we don’t do it is simply staff time.” 3 id., at 168.
“Q. Those inmates who are allowed to write, you do not find it necessary to stop their correspondence as a matter of course; isn’t that true?
“A. No, we don’t stop it as a matter of course and we don’t authorize it as a matter of course. There is no carte blanche approval or denial at any facility. It is done on a case by case individual basis and would have to be.
“Q. Let me refer specifically to inmate-to-inmate. Are you saying there is no carte blanche denial of inmate-to-inmate or the inmates aren’t told that at Renz Correctional Center?
“A. The Division policy is not carte blanche [to] deny inmate-to-inmate, or to approve it.” 4 id., at 43.
“Q. You do know that is the rule at Renz that they cannot write to other institutions unless the inmate is a relative?
“A. I am not certain that that is the rule, no.
*109“Q. Let me hand you Plaintiffs’ Exhibit B, excuse me, Defendants’ Exhibit B. I don’t have the plaintiffs’ number. This is in evidence. It is the inmate orientation manual, February 1983. I direct your attention to the paragraph that says correspondence with inmates of other institutions is permitted with immediate family members only.
“Now, were you familiar with that being the policy at Renz Correctional Center?
“A. I am not sure if I was specifically or not.” Id., at 44.
At the time of trial, the Renz Correctional Center contained both male and female prisoners of varying security level classifications. Most of the female inmates were medium and maximum security offenders, while most of the male inmates were minimum security offenders. 777 F. 2d 1307, 1308 (CA8 1985).
“Q. The question was do you realize the plaintiffs in this case accept the rights of the Division of Corrections to read all their mail if the Division wants to?
“A. There is no way we can read all the mail nor would we want to.” 4 Tr. 41.
*111“Q. Let me hand you Exhibit No. 3, sir, the mail and visiting rule for the Department of Corrections, specifically concerning inmate mail signed by you.
“I direct your attention to paragraph 1(C), outgoing letters will not be sealed by the inmate. And further down in the paragraph, all letters may be inspected in the mail room and examined for contraband, escape plots, forgery, fraud, and other schemes.
“Now, tell me, sir, how do you examine a letter for an escape plot without reading it?
“A. We do not read mail. This does not say mail will be read. The only time we read a letter is when we have reason to believe, for example, that an escape is being planned. [W]hen a letter is being planned, there is no way we want to or know to read all inmate mail. It is impossible.” Id., at 42-43.
There was no record indication of the amount of correspondence between inmates that would occur if it were permitted. Mr. Blackwell stated only that in his opinion, “if we do allow inmates to write other inmates pretty much at will, the vast majority will be writing one another, at least one other offender in another institution. I think it is obvious what it will do to mail room load.” Id., at 108.
“[I]n Kansas we have, our rules and regulations allow us to read all incoming mail. Due to the volume of mail that is absolutely impossible to do.” 3 id., at 159.
The average population at Renz in the 1983 fiscal year was 270. See American Correctional Assn., Juvenile and Adult Correctional Departments, Institutions, Agencies, and Paroling Authorities 214 (1984).
When Ms. Halford was asked why the prison officials did not read all of the inmate mail, she gave this response:
“A. To begin with it’s very boring reading. Another thing, I think it’s a poor use of staff time. If I get more staff in, I would like to have them doing something more important than reading inmate mail. That seems to me to be kind of a waste of time.” Tr. 176.
Earl Englebrecht testified that at Renz he scanned the contents of all approved incoming mail from other institutions, and that this task and scanning some outgoing mail together took approximately one hour a day. 5 id., at 97, 99. He could not indicate with any certainty the additional screening burden that more frequent inmate-to-inmate correspondence *112would impose on him and on the mail room. Id., at 102. The testimony of these two witnesses is hardly consistent with the Court’s assumption that it would be “impossible” to read the portion of the correspondence that is addressed to, or received from, inmates in other institutions.
The Court’s speculation, ante, at 88, 93, about the ability of prisoners to use codes is based on a suggestion in an amicus curiae brief, see Brief for State of Texas as Amicus Curiae 7-9, and is totally unsupported by record evidence.
See ABA Standards for Criminal Justice 23-6.1, Commentary, p. 23*76 (2d ed. 1980) (“[Pjrisoners can write at any length they choose, using any language they desire, to correspondents of their selection, including present or former prisoners, with no more controls than those which govern the public at large”). The American Correctional Association has set forth the “current standards deemed appropriate by detention facility managers and recognized organizations representing corrections.” ACA, Standards for Adult Local Detention Facilities xiii (2d ed. 1981). Standard 2-5328 requires clear and convincing evidence to justify “limitations for reasons of public safety or facility order and security” on the volume, “length, language, content or source” of mail which an inmate may send or receive. Id., at 88.
The Court’s bifurcated treatment of the mail and marriage regulations leads to the absurd result that an inmate at Renz may marry another inmate, but may not carry on the courtship leading to the marriage by corresponding with him or her beforehand because he or she would not then be an “immediate family member.”
Explaining why the request of inmate Diana Finley to be married to inmate William Quillam was denied, Superintendent Turner stated: “If he gets out, then we have got some security problems. . . . The threat, if a man gets out of the penitentiary and he is married to her and he wants his wife with him, there is very little that we can do to stop an escape from that institution because we don’t have the security, sophisticated security, like a maximum security institution.” 1 Tr. 185-186. See also id., at 187.
One of Superintendent Turner’s articulated reasons for preventing one female inmate from corresponding with a male inmate closely tracks the “love triangle” rationale advanced for the marriage regulation:
“Q: Let’s take Ms. Flowers. Do you know of any reason why she should not be allowed to write to Mr. Barks?
“A: Yes.
“Q: Why?
“A: She has two other men. One she wants to get married to, another man that she was involved with at Renz resides with Mr. Barks.
“Q: Let me ask you this. You have mentioned on two or three occasions that people want to get married to one man or the other. Is it your understanding that the only possible relationship between a woman and a man is one of intending to get married?
“A: Well, when they speak of love and want to marry two people, I think that one of them is going to be cut short.” Id., at 237-238.
The Superintendent later elaborated on redirect examination:
“Q: Now you have given an example of a problem that in your opinion justifies restrictions on correspondence as being, say, two men who were corresponding with a particular woman. Would it also be possible to call the two men in and have a chat with them in your office and try to resolve that between them?
“A: I don’t see where that is necessary in my position.” 2 id., at 116-117.
The paternalistic enforcement of the correspondence rule to “protect” female inmates prevents them from exchanging letters with more than one male inmate. Assuming a woman has received permission to correspond with a man:
“Q: Now, what if the female inmate finds somebody new in the institution, and that person gets [pajroled, can she then write to the new fellow?
“A: Then we have two situations then.
“Q: And, therefore, she cannot?
“A: I would say that would be a positive [triggering security concerns] situation. It wouldn’t be a wholesome situation, no.” Id., at 134-135.
“Q: And suppose she comes to you and says, I don’t want to write this old fellow anymore, I want to write to the new fellow. Is she then allowed to write to the new fellow?
*115“A: Then we still have a problem.
“Q: Once an inmate makes a decision to write to — once a female inmate makes a decision to write to another male inmate, then she can’t write to anybody?
“A: You keep saying females. We have the same situation with the male, too, that could exist.” Id., at 135.
David Blackwell testified along the same lines:
“If, for example, a male offender was believed to be in love with a female offender and another male offender wants to cause him some difficulty, he can start a rumor or confront the man with her seeing someone else or corresponding with someone else; and it’s caused a variety of security problems by way of love triangles and situations such as that.” 3 id., at 271 (emphasis added).
Donald Wyrick, Director of Adult Institutions, Missouri Department of Corrections, similarly testified on the security considerations raised by women writing men at other prisons:
“Well, many times love affairs develop, then the inmate inside . . . becomes extremely worried about the female inmate, he thinks she is messing around with somebody else, all those kind of things. He becomes agitated, worried, and frustrated, this type thing. In my professional opinion, that could cause him to do bad things. It might even cause him to explode and hurt someone or attempt to escape.” 4 id., at 231-232.
Having found a constitutional violation, the District Court has broad discretion in fashioning an appropriate remedy. Cf. United States v. Paradise, 480 U. S. 149, 155-156, n. 4 (1987) (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment). The difficulties that a correspondence policy is likely to impose on prison officials screening inmate-to-inmate mail bear on the shaping of an appropriate remedy. It is improper, however, to rely on speculation about these difficulties to obliterate effective judicial review of state actions that abridge a prisoner’s constitutional right to send and receive mail.