ACLU wants porn for prisoners in South Carolina
By Alex HeiglJune 2nd, 2011, 11:32 amComments (24)
The American Civil Liberties Union's latest (and ever so slightly silly) crusade is a campaign to get pornography for prisoners at a South Carolina detention center.
Spurred by a possibly apocryphal report that prisoners at the facility were only allowed to read the Bible (which contains more violence and sex than your average Penthouse Forum letter), the ACLU wants inmates to be allowed to "read and view pornography." (Seriously, though, who reads anymore?)
Now, several of you may be thinking, gee, hasn't pornography been shown to increase thoughts of rape and forced sexual acts? And I would say why yes, yes it has. But the porn used in that study was typically hardcore, internet stuff. I doubt some tastefully airbrushed Playboys would really cause prison to become a more violent place. Plus, titillation is generally in the eye of the beholder. Who's to say that furnishing prisoners with copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover wouldn't have the same effect?
In all seriousness, it's an interesting question. Is free speech a good enough reason to buy a non-essential (and arguably, not as enriching as, say, a textbook) item for prisoners? Or do you lose the right to masturbate when you commit a crime?
Commentarium (24 Comments)
They are in prison. They have the right to remain silent and have the right to an attorney. Other than that, fuck 'em. If they want rights, they should have obeyed the fucking law.
that was the mentality, only 10 years ago.
"Or do you lose the right to masturbate when you commit a crime? " Misleading question! They don't lose the right to masturbate, duh.
It also looks like you misrepresent what ACLU (as libertarian and disgusting as they usually are) is really trying to do: they want to give these prisoners the right to other kinds of books (not just the Bible). Porn is not their prerogative.
For this stupid, misleading, sloppy piece of reporting - I suggest Hooksexup fires you.
The "right to masturbate" was a joke. You know, because people use porn for that purpose. But we did read the source articles, and a couple others (just to be rigorous and shit). It's porn that the ACLU is talking about. Not books.
Anyway, thanks for the rec. We'll probably keep Alex around for the time being.
Okay. My apologies.
However, I thought people used hands for masturbation, generally speaking.
Woah, did Hooksexup just get smarmy?
Easy there tough-guys...every site is replaceable.
@AT, I kinda disagree with you here. Did you even read the article? I thought the piece was well put together, and truly captured the original report. Just sayin'.
Hasn't porn also been shown to DECREASE actual acts of rape? I'm pretty sure it has. Before I bank on that though, I'm going to try to find that study.
I have volunteered some time at pages for prisoners (an organization which donates books to prisoners directly) legally. They get requests from the prisoners themselves on what kind of books they want. Thinking that in some places they can only read the bible is just insulting.
I think prisoners should have the right to books including pornography.
Gay pornography, right? Somehow seems more appropriate for the setting.
whatever makes them happy
https://www.measurection.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/254605/post/last/... (link to full study in article)
Oh hey look there it is.
If further research continues to provide a strong link between porn and decrease in *acts* of sexual violence (I don't really care what thought crimes people commit), I am all for having porn, specifically, in prisons in addition to other reading material.
This study is stupid. It follows the same lackoflogic that people who say "Ice-cream eating causes more crime" because both ice-cream consumption and crime rates increase in the summer.
"Official explanations for the unexpected decline include:
* less lawlessness associated with crack cocaine;
* women have been taught to avoid unsafe situations;
* more would-be rapists already in prison for other crimes;
* sex education classes telling boys that “no means no.”
But these minor factors cannot begin to explain such a sharp decline in the incidence of rape."
Those factors are minor and cannot begin to explain the decline because, um, they say so?
Plus, there may not have been a decline at all, but for some reason women may have decided to stop bothering reporting rape (i.e. the knowledge that rape kits sit around police depts. for decades).
Someone I know did 10 months in a Georgia detention center. If he wanted any reading material other than the Bible, he had to justify why he wanted it.
They can use their imagination instead of wasting taxpayers money on subscriptions of playboy.
Or they can have them be donated. Many nonprofit groups out there donate books to prisons but some prisons don't accept donations because of state laws saying they aren't allowed to have any books or prisons themselves saying they won't allow it. I would think it is more about allowing prisoners to have the right, but not making it a state or federal expenditure.
I'm cool with donated playboys.
From the linked Wikiedia text: "The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court determined whether the viewing of violent pornography is associated with sexual predatory violence and murder. In the 1992 Schiro v. Clark decision to uphold a death penalty case, the Seventh Court contended that 'pornographic depictions of the subordination of women perpetuate the subordination of women and violence against women.'"
Note that it is not "pornography been shown to increase thoughts of rape and forced sexual acts" but that "pornographic depictions of the subordination of women perpetuate the subordination of women and violence against women."
Now, if you can't make the distinction between these two positions then you're as dumb as the author of this piece of nonsense fluff with its poisonous filling. Who would have thought hipsters would be also be such moralists? Or maybe that's just how mommy wants him to act.
Except this really isn't true. It's a huge mischaracterization of the issue. When Gawker wrote about this story, the ACLU contacted them with this to say:
"We are in no way seeking to allow inmates at the Hill-Finklea detention center to enjoy pornography. [The allegation] that we want to make hardcore porn available to all, movies too, is absolutely false."
https://gawker.com/5807277/jerk+off-mags-behind-bars-the-debate-rages