(A) As used in this section:

(1) "Free weight exercise equipment" means any equipment or device that is designed to increase the muscle mass and physical strength of the person using it. "Free weight exercise equipment" includes, but is not limited to, barbells, dumbbells, weight plates, and similar free weight-type equipment and other devices that the department of rehabilitation and correction, in rules adopted under section 5120.423 of the Revised Code, designates as enabling a person to increase muscle mass and physical strength.

(2) "Fixed weight exercise equipment" means any equipment, machine, or device that is not designed primarily to increase muscle mass and physical strength but rather to keep a person in relatively good physical condition. "Fixed weight exercise equipment" includes, but is not limited to, weight machines that utilize weight plates, tension bands, or similar devices that provide weight training resistance like universal and nautilus equipment. "Fixed weight exercise equipment" includes machines that are usually assembled as a unit, are not readily dismantled, and have been specifically modified for prison use so as to make them secure and immobile.

(B)

(1) No officer or employee of a correctional institution under the control or supervision of the department of rehabilitation and correction shall do any of the following:

(a) Provide a prisoner access to free weight exercise equipment;

(b) Provide a prisoner access to fixed weight exercise equipment unless the prisoner is incarcerated in a minimum or medium security facility. Such a prisoner shall be allowed access to such equipment for no more than three hours per week. The prisoner shall be supervised at all times access is permitted, and a list documenting names of prisoners and supervising personnel, dates, and times of usage shall be maintained at each facility.

(c) Allow a prisoner to provide or receive instruction in boxing, wrestling, karate, judo, or another form of martial arts, or any other program that the department, in rules adopted under section 5120.423 of the Revised Code, designates as enabling a person to improve fighting skills.

(2) Nothing in division (B)(1) of this section prohibits an officer or employee of a correctional institution under the control or supervision of the department from allowing a prisoner to participate in jogging, basketball, stationary exercise bicycling, supervised calisthenics, or other physical activities that are not designed to increase muscle mass and physical strength or improve fighting skills.

(C) All of the following apply regarding each correctional institution under the control or supervision of the department of rehabilitation and correction that houses any prisoners:

(1) The department shall provide clothing for all prisoners who are housed in the institution that is conspicuous in its color, style, or color and style, that conspicuously identifies its wearer as a prisoner, and that is readily distinguishable from clothing of a nature that normally is worn outside the institution by non-prisoners, shall require all prisoners housed in the institution to wear the clothing so provided, and shall not permit any prisoner, while inside or on the premises of the institution or while being transported to or from the institution, to wear any clothing of a nature that does not conspicuously identify its wearer as a prisoner and that normally is worn outside the institution by non-prisoners.

(2) The security classification schedule the department uses for prisoners housed in the institution shall require the consideration of all information relevant to the classification, including, but not limited to, all pending criminal charges against the prisoner being classified, the offense for which the prisoner will be confined in the institution, and all prior convictions of or pleas of guilty by the prisoner.

Effective Date: 06-30-1999.