Opinion: The moral — and legal — imperative of outdoor recreation

For many years, I taught a course called “Creative Nonviolent Conflict Resolution” for incarcerated residents at the Centre County Correctional Facility (CCCF). Class sessions were held in the evening, from 6-9 p.m., in a classroom within the jail. All total, I had over 200 students who learned with me about the power and potential of restorative justice practices.

When my students came into the classroom, without fail, they would reverently rush to the window. Though all that could be seen through the window was the sides of two buildings, grass, and the sky, the classroom was one of the few rooms in all of CCCF where one could look outside.

There are no clear windows in the cell blocks, just a thin vertical strip of diffused glass. There is also no outdoor recreation, even though state law requires it. Individuals incarcerated in all Pennsylvania county jails are mandated to minimally provide “at least 2 hours daily, physical exercise in the open, weather permitting.”

A questionable interpretation of the law by state and county officials has led to the belief and practice — at CCCF and many other county jails — that it is acceptable for residents to exercise in a room that possesses a garage-door-like window high up on the wall. This dubious practice is referred to as “urban recreation.” The open door-window hardly constitutes being outside. It’s also not always open, especially when the weather is cold.

Thus, unless CCCF residents go to a place like CentrePeace on work-release or a classroom in the jail, they never see outside. This means that the majority of the residents never feel or see sunshine, fresh air, and the beauty of nature.

One evening, upon entering the classroom, female students began chiming, “Pink! Pink! Pink!” There was a sunset with the color pink in it, which drew them to the window with tremendous appreciation. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Just seeing the color pink. But when our human bodies are deprived of color — and, more broadly, nature — the impact is great. My students were starving to see colors. They often thanked me when I wore something colorful.

One of the skills I taught was problem solving. I chose the same problem for each class to solve:

“Let us pretend that the county commissioners have $100,000 to spend to improve this jail. They are asking this class to recommend how it should be spent.”

We began with brainstorming possible uses for using the money to improve the jail. I would ask for any ideas, even if they seemed far out, as those might spark us to be creative and think of more ideas. Then we would undertake a deliberative process to determine what the group felt was the best idea. Without fail, every group of students not only mentioned the creation of outdoor recreation as the first or second idea brainstormed but also it frequently was, at the end of the process, what students felt would be the best usage of the funds.

Sometimes I shared the list of ideas with the warden. In April 2018, moved by the emphasis on outdoor recreation, I spoke about the issue to the county’s prison board, which meets at 8 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month and is open to the public both in person and virtually. To this day, though, CCCF continues to fail to provide actual outdoor recreation for its residents.

Many former CCCF residents report mental and physical trauma because of their indoor confinement. They had problems before they were incarcerated; upon release they return to our community with problems that are a product of their incarceration. What should be rehabilitative easily becomes the opposite.

Per request of local human rights advocates, the county prison board announced at its December meeting that it is forming a committee to study this problem and recommend alternatives to current practices. Yet the work of that committee, no matter how good it is, will only be suggestive to the prison board. Please contact members of the board, including all three county commissioners, to see that outdoor recreation is provided for CCCF residents.