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Inmate Challenges Prison Porn Law

Is a ban on porn in prisons unconstitutional? A federal appeals panel has asked a district judge to decide whether for South Dakota to impose a such a statewide ban. The issue was raised by an inmate who was prohibited access to innocuous items, because the prison deemed them “pornography." They included a yoga magazine, images of classical nudes from Michelangelo, and manga. The ACLU South Dakota and the National Coalition Against Censorship filed joint amicus briefs decrying the ban. Charles Sisney is serving a life sentence in the South Dakota State Penitentiary for a 1997 murder conviction. Since his imprisonment, South Dakota has passed two bans on porn in prisons. A more restrictive one was passed in 2014. The 2014 rules ban prisoners from writing explicit letters or receiving explicit material, written or visual. “Prisoners do not give up their First Amendment rights. If a prison can show that restricting material protected by the First Amendment is related to a penological interest such as security or safety, the courts tend to give wide discretion to prisons, as they should,” Steven Morrison, a constitutional scholar and law professor who argued part of the case in court, told a local outlet. “But there’s no evidence of that in this case. It is literally unprecedented. The policy prohibits an entire class of speech, sexually explicit content, and goes beyond that. There are no exceptions.”