Exercise

Why have we hit on exercise as one of the most inalienable rights that a prisoner can have? Sure, it would be cruel to deprive prisoners of food or water, or even a soft bed and toilet facilities. But is exercise really next highest on the list?

Even prisoners in the "supermax" very high security prisons get exercise periods now and then. They don't get to see other people, except on special occasions. I don't know about you, but I would rather be able to see other people than be let into a pathetic exercise yard for a few hours a week.

What do they even do in these exercise yards? Wind sprints from one end to the other and back? Do they make like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape? It seems like you could get a reasonable imitation of exercise without leaving your cell. Just do Charles Atlas-like dynamic tension exercises. Or practice standing on your head, until you get really good at it. Or spin around in circles until you fall down.

I'm not even in prison, and I don't get much more exercise than these people who are supposedly being punished. I could probably go years and years without an equivalent exercise yard. Are there really people who consider it a form of torture if they aren't let out to play?