58 Iowa Prisoners Sue For Access To Porn, Money Damages (AVN)

Read the full article by Mark Kernes at AVN.com

DES MOINES, IOWA—Sexually explicit material—"pornography"—is legal everywhere in the United States unless that material has been adjudged to be "obscene." But there's plenty of porn out there, and most adults can find it in stores and online—unless, that is, they're inmates in prisons in Iowa, where a recently passed law has barred the prisons from offering "pornography reading rooms," which had existed for at least three decades in several of the prisons, and also bans inmates from having nude photos—even those as mildly nude as in Playboy magazine—in their cells.

As might be expected, the inmates weren't too happy about that, and have sued state officials in federal court for depriving them of their First Amendment right to see and own the material—and they're asking the courts to award each of them $25,000 for this violation of their constitutional rights.

"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," reported William Petroski of the Des Moines Register. "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."