Opinion ID: 349561
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Convicted Criminals.

Text: 41 We need not reach the question whether convicted criminals have a constitutional right to outdoor exercise. 12 When the totality of conditions in a penal institution violates the Constitution, the trial court's remedies are not limited to the redress of specific constitutional rights. See Gates v. Collier, 5 Cir. 1974, 501 F.2d 1291, 1309. In Newman v. State of Alabama, 5 Cir. 1977, 559 F.2d 283, at 288, this Court found that (s)ome of the steps . . . (ordered by District Judge Frank M. Johnson), if considered in isolation, may have gone beyond constitutional mandates but they were justifiably invoked for the eradication of Eighth Amendment conditions. In Newman, the district court found that conditions in the Alabama Prison System were barbaric and inhumane. 406 F.Supp. at 331. It ordered sweeping relief that included the following paragraph about recreation: 42 Each institution shall employ a qualified full-time recreation director with at least bachelor's level training, or its equivalent, in recreation or physical education. Adequate equipment and facilities shall be provided to offer recreational opportunities to every inmate. Space shall be available for inmates to engage in hobbies. Suitable vocational programs shall be provided. 43 406 F.Supp. at 335. On appeal, although we did not approve all the trial court's remedies, we 44 affirm(ed) the actions of the District Court designed to provide Alabama prison inmates with reasonable recreational facilities. We (did) this simply because such facilities may play an important role in extirpating the effects of the conditions which undisputably prevailed in these prisons at the time the District Court entered its order. 45 559 F.2d at 291. 46 Conditions in the Duval County Jail were similar to those in the Alabama prisons. In Alabama, most inmates (had to) spend substantially all of their time crowded in dormitories in absolute idleness. 406 F.Supp. at 326. In the Duval County Jail, as we have noted, over 90 percent of the inmates never left their cellblocks. Moreover, the trial court found from the evidence that there is an extreme need for recreational facilities in the Duval County Jail. 401 F.Supp. at 881. Given the totality of the circumstances at the Duval County Jail, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the jail authorities to work toward a program of daily outdoor recreation. 47