Posted on 06/30/2004 10:55:51 PM PDT by SeattleNeedsHelp
EVERETT, Wash. -- Washington became the latest state to ban pornography in prison on Wednesday, and prisoners will soon lose their smokes, too.
The state prison system's new mail policy, barring any pictures showing full frontal nudity, went into effect May 1 but gave inmates two months get rid of their porn, Lynne DeLano, assistant deputy secretary of the Corrections Department, said Wednesday.
The ban follows at least five years of complaints from prison staff who said pornography sometimes made prisoners aggressive and created a hostile work environment, she said.
"It flew in the face of the principles of rehabilitation," DeLano said. "A lot of it that was coming in was fairly degrading, especially to women."
Several states have similar porn bans, including Alabama and Arizona, and about half the states have smoking bans, DeLano said. Washington's prison smoking ban is scheduled to take effect Nov. 1.
The bans affects all 16,000 inmates in Washington's 15 prisons.
Any prisoners caught with the contraband will likely receive light punishments for their first offenses, but could lose privileges if they keep getting caught. Sanctions would be greater for inmates who traffic in contraband.
Monroe prison inmate Robert Vederoff, 30, of Seattle, has served 10 years for second-degree murder. He said he disagrees with the smoking ban, but understands the health benefits involved.
The pornography ban, however, baffles him.
"Do I see the benefits for inmates? Absolutely not," he told The Herald of Everett.
Darren Sherman, serving life without parole for aggravated murder, said his box full of pornographic magazines help him momentarily escape his miserable existence. He doesn't plan to turn them in until the guards demand them.
"I'm not going to fight them over something they are going to take anyway. It's a lost battle," he said. "But I'm not just volunteering to give them up."
They obviously did not hear about the recent Supreme Court ruling. The ability to find porn on the internet is now a constitutional right.
Your right, and they probably have taxpayer funded high speed internet access in all cells.
Well, it'll be a busy two months, won't it?
yes, but you will notice that it was also said to create a "hostile work environment." In a conflict between the right to pornography and the right of favored groups not to be offended who will win? Which side will the ACLU take? This one could tear the Left apart.
Maybe without these perks people won't take going to prison so lightly. Now let's talk about bringing back the chain gang as one county in Arizona has done.
"People Unclear On The Concept"
Gee, no smokes after the finish their threesome of 'me, myself and I'!? Ain't this a revoltin' development!
This news comes down on the same day as the impeached rapist himself was signing his "eye-crossingly" dull books in Seattle.
The slick one better not get arrested while he's here, considering this new prison ban. I wonder if the prisons also ban inmates from calling interns for a little not-exactly-conjugal phone sex...
NO HELP, NO ESCAPE!! Take them away NOW!
Why are we building prisons that guards have to (or potential) to come into contact with the inmates and possibly be overrun??
I disagree with this. Both relieve tensions in a highly volitile setting. There is always an undercurrent of violence in a prison. Vices like these won't take that undercurrent away, but they may lessen it a bit.
I am against taxpayer funded porn and smokes. But if an inmate works a job at 20 cents an hour and pays for his own porn and smokes, than I say let him have it.
And weightlifting?
Hmmm. weight lifting. It fits with exercise, but if all an inmate does is lift weights all day, then he won't be working that 20 cent an hour job, and he won't be buying the vices he wants.
Yeah, the revolving door of justice putting habitual bodybuilding criminals onto the street. Cops love tangling with thugs who can bench press a VW.
Personally, I think they should take away the weightlifting equipment and give them all the tobacco and doughnuts they can eat.
He's a prisoner. His existence is supposed to be miserable.
Porn will lead to more violence. Now and later. Ya' know...unreleased frustration and all that stuff? Just like it does in society.
Glad you aren't a psychiatrist..LOL.
Take it all away.
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