Prison porn ban: Iowa inmates suing for right to pornography
Some Iowa prisoners say they want their porn back and are challenging a new regulation banning pornographic magazines from state prisons.
, inmates at the Fort Dodge Correctional Institution make references to Nazism, tyranny and the Bible. They also say if female guards can't handle seeing pornographic images, "they should find employment elsewhere."
The suit argues that new state regulations, spurred by a law requiring state prisons to ban porn and shut down so-called pornographic reading rooms, is unconstitutional.
Frequent prison litigator Allen Curtis Miles, who is serving a life sentence for stabbing a Des Moines woman to death in 1982, was joined by 57 other Fort Dodge inmates, asking to end the ban and requesting $25,000 each.
A federal judge struck down a ban on porn in Iowa prisons 30 years ago for being too vague. The rules began this month.
Mark Kende, director of the Drake University Constitutional Law Center, said the regulations are much more specific, and the current law is much more likely to be upheld.
鈥淏ecause of that specificity and because it excludes educational material, it might actually be OK,鈥� Kende said. 鈥淧risoners generally have rights to access -- absent some incredibly dangerous person -- (including) reading materials. And they have constitutional rights. Even though they鈥檙e in prison, the rights are diminished, but they have them.鈥�
The prisoners argue the new rules ban magazines like Playboy and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.
Kende said their lawsuit may be inarticulate, but unlike plenty of other prisoner-filed lawsuits he's seen over the years, it is not frivolous.
鈥淣udity definitely doesn鈥檛 equal obscenity, so that鈥檚 why there鈥檚 something to the argument that鈥檚 being made by these prisoners that some of this stuff might be protected,鈥� Kende said.
Ultimately, it will be up for a judge to decide.
A Department of Corrections spokesperson said the agency can't comment directly on pending litigation.