NL- Your tax dollars at work fighting this guy. What do you think? A lot of prisons allow porn mags, but county jails do not. Should all prisoners be entitled to nude magazines? And if we are giving Penthouse to the straight guys, we’d be getting naked male mags for the gay inmates. (Thank You R)
Inmate sues state over lack of porn in jail
Man sues state, saying taxpayers should provide it
Robert Snell/ The Detroit News
Detroit— A Macomb County inmate is suing Gov. Rick Snyder and the state, claiming he is being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because jail rules ban pornographic materials.
Kyle Richards, 21, of Fraser filed the five-page handwritten lawsuit June 10 in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He wants a judge to let inmates possess erotic/pornographic materials along with personal televisions, video game consoles and radios.
"Such living conditions have been used as a method of ‘psychological warfare’ against prisoners, in order to both destroy the morale of inmates and break the spirit of individuals," Richards wrote in a court filing.
The lawsuit is the latest in a growing string of complaints he’s filed since last year in federal court.
Federal judges have dismissed at least three of the cases, labeling them frivolous.
That distinction puts Richards in a special class. A federal judge simply can dismiss a case if the court tossed that inmate’s previous lawsuits because they were frivolous, malicious or failed to state a claim, U.S. Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen wrote in a filing June 20.
For now, Richards’ latest suit is pending — though misguided, officials say.
The Governor’s Office referred questions to the state Department of Corrections.
State prisons allow inmates to possess pornographic material with a few exceptions. Playboy and Penthouse magazines are allowed, spokesman John Cordell said.
The Macomb County jail, however, does not let inmates possess porn. But Richards did not sue the county.
Richards found few people rallying to his defense Friday.
"Prisons have a lot of leeway to regulate the material that comes in and out," said Kary Moss, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Michigan.
Richards’ criminal record includes convictions for assault and battery of a state worker in Livingston County and assault of a prison employee in Washtenaw County.
The lack of pornographic materials behind bars forces Richards to endure "such a poor standard of living, suffering from both sexual and sensory deprivation …" he wrote.
Richards has been in jail since January after being charged with bank robbery and is being held on $500,000 bond. He pleaded guilty Thursday and will be sentenced Aug. 2.
If you can’t do the time then don’t do the crime….
Its prison and supposed to be prison not a fucking motel. My feeling is when a mope goes to prison he should be made to do hard labor and bust his ass all day long breaking big rocks up into little ones and stuff like that.
Lawsuits by inmates should be for important stuff not frivilous shit like this douchebag is doing. He is making it harder for prisoners who actually do have a lawsuit of merit to be heard.
I think it should be allowed, but only controlled from within the system. As in, the prisons should provide the material at an extra ridiculous marked- up price like the cigarettes and sundries and whatnot.
I’m not sure which message is more disturbing:
Join the army: Sign your life over as a slave of the military and you too can travel the world, meet all sorts of interesting people and kill them.
Commit a crime: free room, board and porn.
I wrote an editorial on this a while back…I still get at least 2 or 3 contact requests from prisoners every week. There are many prisons that allow unfiltered internet access which to me is fucking ridiculous. It’s already enough with them getting cable tv and conjugal visits but porn to? If it gets any softer people are going to be committing crimes just to go to prison.
Punish the fucks and be done with it. And you bleeding heart idiots stop pampering people are in fucking prison.