HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Corrections Department's definition of "inclement weather" is not a state secret, a judicial panel has ruled.

The three state Commonwealth Court judges ordered the department to turn over the information to a prisoner who believes that he and other inmates at the Smithfield state prison are being forced to exercise indoors more often than necessary.

State law requires inmates who are not in segregation or on disciplinary status to be given two hours of daily outdoor exercise, weather permitting. But it is the department that decides bad weather.

Inmate Roger Buehl claims that outdoor exercise at Smithfield is routinely canceled for conditions that would not typically be considered inclement — for example, drizzling rain or even overcast skies.

Buehl, 48, who is serving life for a triple murder committed 26 years ago, filed a request for the definition under the state Right-to-Know law.

The department twice rejected his request, arguing that the information should be excluded from the Right-to-Know law because its release could jeopardize the safety and security of employees and other inmates at the prison in Huntingdon County.

The judges dismissed those concerns as speculative.

The panel said the definition of bad weather is unlike other materials that the court has allowed to be kept secret, such as a manual used to determine the level of danger that an inmate poses. Any security concerns about the release of the definition are outweighed by the public's interest in ensuring that a state agency is properly carrying out its mission, it said.