Centre County jail doesn’t have outdoor recreation. Advocates are pressing for change
Human rights advocates pressed Thursday the board that oversees the Centre County Correctional Facility on the absence of exterior recreation for inmates, saying the jail should go above the minimum requirements spelled out in state law.
Most of the jail’s 150-plus inmates do not get direct sunlight, save for the handful of those who participate in the work release program, CentrePeace or when they are transported to and from the county courthouse.
The jail’s recreation areas use a garage-like door that exposes a mesh-covered window high up on an outer wall. Inmates do not have an opportunity for recreation in an open field.
Eight consecutive biennial inspections from a branch of the state Department of Corrections found the setup complies with the law. Jails are required to provide inmates at least two hours of physical activity in the open daily, weather permitting.
If the weather is inclement, inmates are required to have two hours of exercise indoors. Those under disciplinary status may get one hour of outdoor activity five days a week.
Local resident Irvin Moore — one of several who pressed the county’s prison board of inspectors — asked for the jail to clear more than the required hurdle.
“I’m pleading to you. I understand the parameters that we’re working within, but at least consider stepping outside of that any way you can. Any way you can,” said Moore, who was incarcerated at Rockview state prison for half of the 52 years he spent in prison. “What we have with the urban recreation areas is still not outside. It’s still not. They can have recreation, yeah, but it’s not outside. That’s all I’m asking.”
The seven-person board expressed a willingness to find more outdoor opportunities for inmates, but board Chairman Michael Pipe said major changes — like construction of an outdoor recreation yard — are not being considered.
Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna was one board member who extended an olive branch.
“I realize the cost and limitations that we have with our current structure; I get that. In my previous life, I had clients that had been there for quite a long time,” the defense lawyer-turned-prosecutor said. “And to say it’s less than ideal is an understatement.”
The Centre County jail is not an outlier in its approach to recreation areas. About three-fourths of Pennsylvania’s 62 county jails have urban recreation areas.
Eighteen, including the Centre County jail, are covered and only allow natural light and fresh air through designed portals. About one-fifth of the state’s county jails have exterior recreation areas.
Planning for the Centre County Correctional Facility dates back more than two decades; it opened in 2005 and remains one of the newest county jails in the state.
The design, Deputy Warden of Operations Melanie Gordon said, has stood up to the test of time. The three newest county jails in Pennsylvania “all have what we have, more or less,” she said.
Lancaster County is next in line to construct a new jail; it may not open for another four years. Detailed plans have not yet been released, Gordon said.
Centre County would have to shoulder long-term costs if exterior recreation yards were added, Warden Christopher Schell told the board. A minimum of nine to 15 full-time corrections officers would need to be hired for outdoor recreation.
That could be a tall task for a department that’s fought to stay above minimum staffing levels.
“We wouldn’t be running outside rec right now as it is. It wouldn’t be feasible because we don’t have staff,” Schell said. “We would have a rec yard just be sitting there. Practically, I don’t see that feasible here at the county level.”
The next board of inspectors meeting is scheduled for Dec. 8.
“We do not need to be at the minimum,” said Mark Kissling, a Centre County resident since 2010. “As the board says, ‘Well, only 14 counties have actual outdoor recreation.’ Even if zero had it, why not lead on this important human consideration?”