Jail uncovers windows for judge’s order
In response to a ruling that said San Francisco violates the rights of people held in its San Bruno jail by keeping them indoors all day and must allow some of them at least 15 minutes of access to sunlight, the sheriff ’s office has removed some of the covering from windows at the jail’s gym, but is still requiring most of those held in jail to remain indoors.
In her ruling in October, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim said San Francisco has acted with “reckless indifference” to the health of hundreds of people in jail. She noted that jails in other counties have exercise yards, and said San Francisco “provides no real reason why it cannot build an exercise yard for outdoor exercise that would allow inmates access to direct sunlight.”
But City Attorney David Chiu’s office said Kim’s order “did not include any limitations on how the Sheriff ’s Office offered inmates access to sunlight nor did it require the Sheriff’s Office to construct outdoor recreation facilities.”
Removing the louver, or grated covering, from a window at the gym will give 532 people jailed in the facility direct access to sunlight for more than 15 minutes a day, Deputy City Attorney Sabrina Berdux said in a filing. She said another 162 people have been transferred to a jail annex that has an outdoor exercise yard.
A lawyer for the jailed men said the city was practicing “sleight of hand.”
“Sunlight, on a daily basis, only enters each gym, if at all, for a limited amount of time and in limited locations,” attorney Yolanda Huang said by email. “Why won’t the jail just do the right thing? Give these folks an exercise yard. They’ve got 300 acres!”
In a statement Tuesday, Tara Moriarty, spokesperson for Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, said, “In an ongoing commitment to the well-being and rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals, and in response to a recent court order to provide direct, unfiltered sunlight to prevent potential medical harm as asserted by the plaintiffs, Sheriff (Miyamoto) determined that the removal of louvers in gym windows complied with the Court’s order, providing the health benefits of direct, unfiltered sunlight.”
The jail holds men who are kept in custody before trial, some for many years. Other than those held in solitary confinement, inmates were allowed out of their cells for much of the day before the start of the pandemic and had access to an indoor gym but could not go outdoors for exercise. Their out-of-cell time was restricted to an hour a day in 2020 and 21⁄2 hours a day in 2022 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In defense of their policy, jail officials cited security concerns and contended people held in jail have no constitutional right to be outdoors.
But Kim, who presided over a nonjury trial, cited testimony from an expert witness that prolonged lack of exposure to direct sunlight can cause high blood pressure, weight gains, an increased risk of diabetes and other health problems suffered by inmates who also testified.
But her order required sunlight access only for inmates who had been held for more than a year. And the city attorney’s office said in its Dec. 22 filing that the magistrate, in response to an inquiry about the window covering, had responded that the jail could comply with her order if it could show that “the louvered windows … allow access to sunlight, not filtered through any obstruction such as glass.”