Adult Magazines
Should Prisoners Have Girly Magazines?
By Daniel Muniz

Should inmates in prison be allowed to possess adult magazines such as Gallery, Cheri, High Society, or Playboy? Or should convicts also have publications like the motorcycle magazine Easyriders since it has partial nudity?

The Indiana Department of Corrections felt that inmates should not have access to any such material when they recently enacted a policy to ban publications with nude, partial nudity, and strong sexual content. However, convicts Earnest Tope and Wade Meisberger from the Pendleton Correctional Facility went through the prison grievance system to challenge the ban but have routinely failed in their efforts to have this policy overturned.

Shortly afterwards, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) stepped in on the prisoner’s behalf to file a class-action lawsuit for the 20,000 deprived Indiana inmates.

The first thing that the ACLU did was to seek as much publicity as possible so they put this case in the court of public opinion. They started out by making an outrageous interpretation of the policy by claiming that just about anything could be banned in the prison system, including some of the great literary and artistic works. And they even went as far to make the bogus assertion that a magazine such as National Geographic could also be prohibited. Furthermore, the ACLU also insists that private personal correspondence such as love letters sent to inmates could also be targeted.

The purpose of the publicity is to get the public on the side of prisoners even though many of the inmates are violent offenders. Of course the ACLU wants to take this case to court (it is irrelevant if they win or not because they will be generously reimbursed by the government either way) but they also hope to get the public involved and most importantly, get the press to apply pressure to the Indiana Department of Corrections because after all, it is a state agency.

And the tactic is all too common. That is, paint prison officials as being more sinister than the violent criminals by portraying them as being book burners who want to prohibit access to the world’s great literature and art. And such a false depiction will also make it appear that the Department of Corrections will trample over the “freedom of the press” by going after news magazines, newspapers, and even National Geographic.

Forget about the facts of the case like whether or not punishment includes prohibiting a prisoner from having sexually explicit magazines in their possession. The ACLU will put the constitution on trial instead. As a result, some of the news wires are sympathetic to the lawsuit when they reported this story.

Let’s first focus on the actual facts of this case. That is, should prisoners have such material in the first place?

Is it cruel or unusual punishment for a convicted criminal serving time in prison to be deprived of sexually explicit magazines that are intended to arouse and titillate? Do inmates have a legitimate need to see naked women in sexually provocative positions? Will they be emotionally devastated if they are deprived of their girly magazines? Or do prisoners simply have the constitutional right to enjoy such publications as a leisure activity?

It could be said that the inmates may just want to only read the articles but the fact of the matter is that the pictures come with the magazines.

The bottom line is that people in prison are being punished for the crimes that they committed. Although certain Liberals may deplore the concept of punishment, it is precisely the reason why criminals are locked up in the first place. Yes, they may or may not be rehabilitated during that time but regardless of the outcome, they are being punished by staying in prison for the duration of their sentence. And if the prisoners refuse to change their behavior after they are released, they are going to get punished again.

The concept that that the inmates will lose their civil rights if such a type of magazine is banned is ludicrous and the ACLU knows it. And such an assertion will have little public support and sympathy. That is why the emphasis is on a “scorched earth” approach in which they imply that prison officials may possibly ban everything including basic constitutional rights. The ACLU can now stir the passions from the public in explaining that convicted criminals will now lose all of their rights. And if the lie is repeated often enough, people may even believe it.

Indiana determined that prisoners do not have a right to magazines of naked women. And if inmates have a problem with that, then they should not return to prison when they are released. And for the criminals who are not ever getting out of prison, then that is merely the consequence of being locked up.

Prison is not intended to be a resort. It is harsh place to live at especially with many unsavory roommates. But people should have thought about that before they committed the crimes that put them in there in the first place. And if they don’t like it, then don’t come back. And if you don’t have the option to eventually be released, then tough. That is the price you pay for committing a heinous crime.

Am I being cold-hearted and mean-spirited?

Perhaps there are groups of people who see it that way. But the rationale for using prison as a form of punishment is that a prisoner is going to get punished. Radical isn’t it?

And part of that punishment is being deprived of certain personal freedoms, such as being prohibited from having a girlie magazine.

Are we going to split hairs and include Maxim and Men’s Health Magazine since those publications have plenty of pictures of scantily clad women?

The ACLU definitely wants to since they are going to be reimbursed from the government for filing these frivolous lawsuits. And they intend to make this issue as expensive to the taxpayer as possible through litigation so that the prison system will drop the policy.

But more states need to follow Indiana’s example.

There is nothing wrong with punishing prisoners by taking away the personal freedoms that they already forfeited. Prison needs to be an unpleasant uncomfortable place that will discourage more people from wanting to end up there in the first place as well as discouraging its current prisoners from coming back.

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