Oversight board recommends approval of outdoor recreation study for Centre County jail

The board that oversees the Centre County Correctional Facility recommended approval Thursday of a study to determine the feasibility of traditional outdoor recreation at the jail.

The unanimous recommendation from the prison board of inspectors put the county’s commissioners — all three are members of the board of inspectors — in position to either greenlight or halt the study.

There is no deadline for the vote to take place. The county is aiming to have it on an agenda within the “next few weeks,” Administrator John Franek wrote in an email to the Centre Daily Times.

Still, human rights advocates who pushed for the study for years hailed Thursday’s vote as a victory.

“We will be judged by the way we treat our powerless,” longtime restorative justice advocate and CentrePeace founder Marie Hamilton wrote in an email to the CDT. “Being cruel with punishment will hurt us all.”

If approved, the study is expected to take months to complete. Design firms would be charged with evaluating everything from improvements to existing recreation yards and staffing to the potential creation of new outdoor recreation yards and security.

A completed study is expected to give the board a detailed analysis of the cost for any potential new construction, as well as how many people would need to be hired.

The jail has seen no major exterior changes since it opened in 2005. It’s divided into nine housing areas, six of which have urban recreational areas — essentially a large opening high up a wall — that pass muster with state law.

Most inmates do not have an opportunity to step outside the jail’s walls, save for those who participate in work release or are en route to CentrePeace or the Centre County Courthouse.

A majority of county jails in Pennsylvania have urban recreation areas like the Centre County jail. Only about one-fifth of the 62 county jails in the state have exterior recreation areas.

While the feasibility study would give the board formal estimates, decision-makers already have some idea of the challenges the jail is facing.

The jail’s former warden said a minimum of nine to 15 corrections officers would need to be hired if the board pursues exterior recreation, a tall task for a facility that’s fought like many others to stay above minimum staffing levels.

Warden Glenn Irwin has said the jail would’ve been unable to offer inmates exterior recreation opportunities even if those yards existed. He’s also sought to guard against compromising the jail’s security if major changes are approved.

“We hope to see continued progress in implementing outdoor recreation at CCCF. The studies on this subject are unequivocal: outdoor recreation not only aids individuals incarcerated in their rehabilitation and reintegration into society but also provides benefits to correctional facility staff and victims,” Coalition for Outdoor Recreation at CCCF community organizer Shirley Gorski wrote in an email to the Centre Daily Times. “True rehabilitation, which encompasses various aspects of well-being, significantly reduces recidivism rates — a goal that outdoor recreation can effectively support.”

The next prison board meeting is scheduled for April 11.