Opinion ID: 501856
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Lack of Exercise

Text: 14 Harris claims that his constitutional right to exercise was violated during his twenty-eight days in the segregation unit. We evaluate this separate exercise claim according to the same standards that we have already discussed in relation to the other prison conditions. 15 It is obviously difficult for a prison to extend all the privileges the general population receives to one who wants and needs to be protected from other inmates for his own welfare. Harris claims he was given a Hobson's choice: either forgo his exercise rights or accept a transfer to the general population where he could exercise. Harris characterizes this offer as some form of retaliation against him for filing lawsuits, and also, more directly, claims that twenty-eight days without exercise is cruel and unusual punishment. It is true that we have suggested that lack of exercise could be cruel and unusual punishment, but we have not yet so held. See Shelby County Jail Inmates v. Westlake, 798 F.2d 1085, 1089 (7th Cir.1986) (quoting French v. Owens, 777 F.2d 1250, 1255 (7th Cir.1985), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 77, 93 L.Ed.2d 32 (1986)). 16 In French we stated that lack of exercise could rise to a constitutional violation [w]here movement is denied and muscles are allowed to atrophy, [and] the health of the individual is threatened. 777 F.2d at 1255. Nothing of that consequence was claimed to have been reached in this case even though it was not a desirable situation. If exercise is what Harris desperately wanted he could have improvised temporarily with jogging in place, aerobics, or pushups. He retained the ability to move about in the unit. This was a short-term situation, lasting only four weeks. Where there is a general policy limitation on exercise some courts have endeavored to set minimums, but in this case we need not reach that issue. Campbell v. Cauthron, 623 F.2d 503, 507-08 (8th Cir.1980); Hutchings v. Corum, 501 F.Supp. 1276, 1294 (W.D.Mo.1980). Harris claims only to have been deprived of yard or recreation time, not all exercise. In modern prisons the denial of recreation time may deprive inmates of many desirable, entertaining diversions the lack of which would not raise a constitutional issue. 17 In Caldwell v. Miller, 790 F.2d 589 (7th Cir.1986), this court approved the grant of summary judgment for the defendants in a case where the inmate had been deprived of indoor and outdoor recreation and confined to his cell twenty-four hours a day in a lockdown situation. We could find nothing in the complaint other than inconvenience and discomfort, both of which fall outside the eighth amendment. 790 F.2d at 600-01. Lack of exercise is easily distinguishable from deliberate denial of medical care. Unless extreme and prolonged, lack of exercise is not equivalent to a medically threatening situation. 18 Assuming the truth of Harris's allegations, the magistrate properly disposed of this issue by summary judgment. 19