A federal judge ordered at least 15 minutes of daily access to direct sunlight for prisoners incarcerated longer than one year.

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge ruled that the city of San Francisco violated the Fourteenth Amendment rights of prisoners at County Jail 3 in San Bruno by denying them access to direct sunlight.

Based on the physical harm suffered by plaintiffs and the lack of reasoning from the defendant for the denial of sunlight access, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Kim ruled that plaintiffs prevailed on their claim that complete denial of exposure to direct sunlight is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article I, Section 7 of the California Constitution.

“Given the need for daily access to direct sunlight, the fact that plaintiffs began suffering from medical problems approximately a year after they were incarcerated, and the failure to identify the amount of time for daily exposure, the court rules that defendant must offer to each inmate who has been incarcerated for longer than a year the following: daily access to direct sunlight, weather permitting and in the absence of an emergency (including but not limited to a global pandemic or prison riot) for at least 15 minutes,” Kim wrote. “The amount of time — 15 minutes — is more than de minimis but less intrusive on the sefendant.”

Plaintiffs are inmates that sought to represent the class of prisoners housed at San Bruno and the now-defunct San Francisco Hall of Justice.

They claim they were kept in strict solitary confinement in tiny cells and were not given sufficient room to exercise, a problem that worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Jose Poot, an inmate at San Bruno, testified at a bench trial in August that he estimated he has only received 20-30 seconds of exposure to sunlight per year since he was incarcerated in 2016. The prison has no outdoor exercise yard.

Poot and other inmates who testified at the bench trial in August said that the lack of access to sunlight and exercise led to health and psychological problems, including weight gain, depression, diabetes, and nearsightedness.

Montrail Brackens, a detainee at San Bruno since 2012, testified at the bench trial that his cell was so small that if he stretched out his hands he could touch both sides of the cell. He said he gained 60 pounds since his incarceration, and now has blood pressure issues and diabetes that he did not have before he was imprisoned.

Kim found the city was “recklessly indifferent” when it deprived prisoners of access to direct sunlight, writing that there was “no valid governmental interest” in denying direct sunlight to inmates.

“Defendant attempts to justify its denial of outdoor exercise by arguing, with no evidence, that there is no way that defendant can securely provide exercise to plaintiffs and other inmates because there is no outdoor exercise yard,” Kim wrote.

Kim wrote there was nothing stopping the defendants from constructing an outdoor exercise yard and noted that other facilities in the area, such as San Quentin State Prison, have outdoor exercise yards.

“Defendant relies upon tautological reasoning: it created the problem by building a jail without a secured outdoor exercise yard and then relies upon that problem to claim that it cannot provide a secure way for inmates to have access to direct sunlight.”

Kim noted that the California Board of State and Community Corrections sets minimum standards for the physical structure in which detainees can be housed. The standards call for an outdoor exercise yard in every Type II facility in the state. The American Correctional Association also recommends one hour of daily access to an outdoor recreation yard for all inmates.

Kim did rule, however, that there was no violation when the city confined prisoners during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Defendant’s actions in confining inmates to their cells for long periods of time, though, were balanced against the threat of death caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. ‘Genuine emergency’ can serve as a rational basis for complete lockdown and deprivation of right to exercise,” Kim wrote.

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Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of “The View,” lectured the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco on Monday about what is and is not his job after he announced that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is to be denied Holy Communion in his archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights.

“The abortion rights battle is starting to blur the lines between church and state. The archbishop of San Francisco is calling for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be denied receiving communion because of her pro-choice stance. He’s one of the priests who also called president Biden to be denied sacrament,” Goldberg said at the beginning of the segment.

“This isn’t your job, dude!” she furiously exclaimed. “That is not, you can’t, that is not up to you to make that decision.”

“How dare you,” she said to Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, who on Friday announced that he informed Pelosi she would not be admitted to Holy Communion after she resisted pastoral counsel on her support for abortion rights “for too long.”

Watch:

In a letter to the priests of his archdiocese, Cordileone explained that he had attempted to meet and speak with Pelosi several times in the months leading up to his decision. He wrote that according to canon law, Pelosi is “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” and that it is his responsibility as archbishop — literally his job — to enforce church discipline against her.

The co-hosts of “The View,” several of whom were either raised as or are practicing Catholics, accused the Catholic Church of “hypocrisy” for neglecting to condemn politicians like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who supports the death penalty in contradiction to Catholic social teaching.

“The Catholic Church has lost 20% in attendance since the year 2000,” said Ana Navarro, who went on to argue that church doctrine on controversial social issues is responsible for declining believers.

“Why? Because they’re against artificial birth control. They are against in vitro fertilization. They won’t give you communion if you are divorced or if you are a gay couple, and because of things like this, and in the meantime, if they really want to protect children, they have tallied 17,000 at least complaints of molestations by priests since the year 1980,” Navarro continued.

“So if you want to protect children, archbishop, instead of sheltering pedophilia, you know, pedophile priests, instead of moving them to other churches without telling the community, instead of protecting them, you should be protecting the children who go get Catholic education in your churches,” she said.

Joy Behar interjected to say that only 4% of priests are “bad priests,” defending the majority as not being child abusers.

Sunny Hostin then gave her take that Catholics should not “politicize” their religion.

“While I believe that abortion is wrong, and I believe that the catechism of the Catholic Church that pro-life extends from conception through natural death. If you are a practicing Catholic as Bill Barr is, as Greg Abbott is — then you should be pro-life from conception through natural death,” she said, referring to former Attorney General Bill Barr.

“And, the issue that I have with these politicians politicizing their religion is the hypocrisy, because when you look at the Catholic church, and these bishops, the death penalty, you know, so this includes the death penalty, right?” Hostin continued.

“When Bill Barr was the AG, he was honored for his service by the Church at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, and that included an address from the twice-divorced president at the time,” she said, adding that the Church was hypocritical for being friendly toward former President Donald Trump too (Trump is not a practicing Catholic).

“And Greg Abbott is another Catholic who is a proponent of the death penalty. There’s also the Second Amendment. If you are truly a pro-life Catholic, then you have to support gun reform. So you have to be consistent, and the church is just not consistent.,” Hostin asserted.

“Greg Abbott has overseen 55 executions,” Behar noted.

“Yes, and Bill Barr actually, under his watch, the federal government execute prisoners for the first time since 2003,” Hostin said. “Why are they weaponizing the sacrament against Nancy Pelosi, but not Bill Barr and other people the same way?”

But the archbishop spoke to her point in his letter.

“There are those who speak of such actions as I am taking as ‘weaponizing’ the Eucharist,” Cordileone wrote. “However, this is simply application of Church teaching. One would have to demonstrate that a person’s actions in following Church teaching is explicitly for a political purpose in order to justify the accusation of ‘weaponizing’ the Eucharist. I have been very clear all along , in both my words and my actions, that my motive is pastoral, not political.”

“I also hasten to point out that one can also violate Church teaching and take Holy Communion for a political purpose as well, thus ‘weaponizing’ the Eucharist for one’s own ulterior motives,” he added.

As for Abbott and Barr, they are not under the San Francisco archbishop’s authority, but Pelosi is.

(h/d: Mediaite)

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