Fifty-eight Iowa inmates are suing state officials in federal court, seeking $25,000 each in damages, claiming they have been denied a constitutional right to pornography in the state’s prison system.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Des Moines, seeks to overturn a new state law that has shut down designated “pornography reading rooms” in Iowa’s prisons. It also prohibits inmates from having nude photos in their cells. This includes Playboy magazine, which has long been allowed in the state’s nine prisons, which hold 8,575 inmates.
The plaintiffs — who are all inmates at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility — are led by Allen C. Miles, 70, who is serving a life sentence for the stabbing death of Cheryl Kleinschrodt on March 3, 1982, in Des Moines. The suit claims the law was enacted under the guise of “morality,” and blames “religious tyrants” who have no regard for the U.S. Constitution or Declaration of Independence.
The lawsuit also contends that if female correctional officers employed in Iowa’s prisons for men can’t handle an environment that includes photographic matter featuring female nudity and related matters that “they should find employment elsewhere.”
The suit was filed in late October and the changes took effect Nov. 14. U.S. Judge Robert Pratt in Des Moines has ordered each of the plaintiffs to pay a filing fee or to request that the fee be waived. He also told them to file a new complaint no later than Friday for the case to proceed.
The legislation — approved by the Iowa House and Senate and signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds — was part of a justice system budget bill approved at the end of the 2018 session. The new law specifically says funds appropriated to the Iowa Department of Corrections shall not be used to distribute or make available any commercially published information or material to an inmate that is sexually explicit or features nudity.
The new law reverses a policy in place for three decades since late Chief U.S. District Judge Harold Vietor upheld findings in 1988 that the state’s prison rules on pornography were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad.
Michael Savala, the Iowa prison system’s general counsel, told state lawmakers during the session the legislation mirrors a policy currently used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Iowa prison officials believe the changes will withstand a court challenge from inmates, he said.
“The department really feels that inmates having access to that kind of material does not lend itself to pro-social thinking and behavior and as far as our responsibilities to change the mindset of the offender as they transition back into the community,” Savala said.
Prison officials also said the elimination of designated prison rooms in which inmates could read sexually oriented material ends a staff-intensive process. Under the old policy, offenders would check out publications and be escorted to a private reading area. When the inmate was finished examining the publication, the magazine would be returned to a staff person, who would inspect it to make sure no pages were been removed and no contraband was inserted into it.
In addition, prison officials said the population of sex offenders has grown significantly in Iowa’s prisons since the 1980s and 1990s and prison officials want to keep sexually oriented publications away from them.
However, during Senate debate on the bill, Sen. Rich Taylor, D-Mount Pleasant, a retired Iowa State Penitentiary employee, opposed the legislation. He contended the changes ignore the fact that male inmates have a sexual drive.
“That is just a fact and you have to have some way to relieve that,” Taylor said. “This gives the inmates no release point except another offender, and don’t think that it doesn’t happen. This will make it worse. They will have no other alternatives for their relief. I think that this is a bad idea.”
Cord Overton, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, said incarcerated individuals were advised in July that the changes would take effect in mid-November. That gave inmates four months to stop subscriptions to sexually explicit publications and to make arrangements with family and friends, he said.
“Operationally, department leadership advised the incarcerated individuals and staff that after the 14th of November, we would not be ‘shaking the institution down,’ but any pornography found during the course of a routine search might lead to discipline. We have had no real issues so far,” Overton said in an email.
2 Responses
I hope the inmates lose. Prison is supposed to suck. You should not have access to porn or be able to vote when you go to prison.