Dolphin’s Dock

When I first saw this story¹ about an inmate charged with indecent exposure for masturbating in his jail cell, no verdict had yet been handed down and I jokingly commented:

I think I’d define being confined to a jail cell WITHOUT even being able to touch yourself to be cruel and unusual punishment…

Now that a guilty verdict has been reached, I’m wondering if my statement might be more accurate than I’d originally guessed in posting it. Well, perhaps not technically “cruel and unusual,” but perhaps simply not the best thing to be regulating. Prisons may be government-funded and that might make them “public” per se, but I interpret indecent exposure laws as being more concerned with what goes on in the view of the public rather than simply on public-owned land. Prisoners (for good reason) don’t have private rooms they can wander off to. Certainly, they must expose themselves multiple times a day for activities such as showering and using restroom facilities. Many would argue that the drive for sexual release is as natural and common as the activities I mentioned above. In fact, every member of the selected jury acknowledge having masturbated at some point themselves. As a rule, prisoners have no other avenue for sexual release short of raping other inmates (and we don’t want to encourage that do we?). Unless he was wagging it out the window at passing traffic, I have a hard time finding fault (let alone criminal offense) with him just getting off by himself in his cell.

As for the Corrections Officer who filed the charge (as she has with seven other inmates), I’ve little sympathy. If it so terribly offends you to see humans being human, then perhaps a job watching humans day in and day out isn’t the best job for you.

1. Hat-tip: A Stitch in Haste : Voyeur Dire? [↩]