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

Heading: Exercise and Recreation.

Text: 34 In an earlier case we reserved the question whether the Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 require that pretrial detainees be allowed opportunities for outdoor exercise and recreation. Smith v. Sullivan, 5 Cir. 1977, 553 F.2d 373, 379. In the case now before us, we face that question and the question whether the Constitution and § 1983 mandate such opportunities for convicted prisoners. We hold that both presumably innocent inmates and convicted inmates must be allowed reasonable recreational facilities. Pretrial detainees are entitled to such facilities because of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. For convicted criminals, as we stated in Newman, 559 F.2d at 291, We do this simply because such facilities may play an important role in extirpating the effects of the conditions which undisputedly prevailed in these prisons at the time the District Court entered its order. 35 We find that the remedy ordered by the district court, daily outdoor recreation, is an appropriate goal toward which jail authorities should work. That goal may not be immediately attainable because of lack of resources. See Smith v. Sullivan, 5 Cir. 1977, 553 F.2d 373, 379. Or it may not be invariably attainable because of inclement weather, an outbreak of violence within the jail, or emergency situations. It is, however, a goal toward which the jail authorities should strive. 36
37 The issue of the right of pretrial detainees to outdoor recreation pits the paramount need for jail security against the principle found in the procedural branch of the fourteenth amendment's due process clause that citizens may not be punished without proof. We hold that presumably innocent pretrial detainees who are not classified as security risks and who have not been shown to have violated the disciplinary rules of the jail have a fourteenth amendment and 1983 right to regular access to the outdoors. 38 The reason for which presumably innocent detainees are incarcerated is to assure their attendance at trial. Any incarceration or detention might be deemed punitive, because it is a deprivation of liberty. But pretrial detention only becomes punishment violative of the fourteenth amendment due process clause when the conditions placed on the detainee are more restrictive than are necessary to assure his presence at trial or to preserve security. Duran v. Elrod, 7 Cir. 1976, 542 F.2d 998, 999; Rhem v. Malcolm, 2 Cir. 1974, 507 F.2d 333, 336-37. (W)here a person has not been convicted of a crime, any deprivation of his liberty by the state must be the least restrictive means of achieving the purpose of the deprivation. Note, Constitutional Limitations on the Conditions of Pretrial Detention, 79 Yale L.J. 941, 949 (1970), quoted in Hamilton v. Love, 1971, E.D.Ark., 328 F.Supp. 1182, 1192. 39 We agree with the trial court that conditions at the Duval County Jail were unnecessarily restrictive. Presumably innocent detainees were literally stored in a building designed as a maximum security penal institution a building designed to punish as well as to hold. At the time of the trial of this case, at least 90 percent of the inmates in the jail never left their cellblocks, even for meals. 401 F.Supp. at 893. Inmates presumed innocent by the law were often kept for months in these cellblocks while waiting for trial. The trial court considered the continuous confinement of the inmates at the Duval County Jail and found that such uninterrupted incarceration was unnecessary for the purpose of maintaining their presence at that institution. We agree with that finding. The trial judge also surveyed the areas available for outdoor recreation at the municipal complex of which the jail is a part and found that there were adequate facilities for that purpose without a large expenditure of funds. 401 F.Supp. at 893. We find that the continuous incarceration of presumably innocent persons in an institution designed to punish, where outdoor recreation is reasonably possible, is unnecessarily restrictive and therefore punishes the innocent in violation of procedural due process. See Rhem v. Malcolm, 2 Cir. 1974, 507 F.2d 333; Duran v. Elrod, 7 Cir. 1976, 542 F.2d 998, 999; Haggy v. Solem, 8 Cir. 1977, 547 F.2d 1363 (per curiam); Hamilton v. Landrieu, E.D.La.1972, 351 F.Supp. 549, 550; Taylor v. Sterrett, N.D.Tex.1972, 344 F.Supp. 411, 422, aff'd, 5 Cir. 1974, 499 F.2d 367, 368; Brenneman v. Madigan, N.D.Cal.1972, 343 F.Supp. 128, 140; Conklin v. Hancock, D.N.H.1971, 334 F.Supp. 1119, 1122; Jones v. Wittenberg, N.D.Ohio 1971, 330 F.Supp. 707, 717, aff'd, 6 Cir. 1972, 456 F.2d 854. 40
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