>>721101to this day masturbation is illegal in US federal prison
this is a denial of basic human autonomy and dignity. we are not talking about people jacking off in front of guards but fulfilling a human need at 3am.
>Richards claims he was recently caught masturbating for the first time in 12 years of incarceration when a female guard peeked her head in during night checks. He got a ticket—no big deal. But a short time later, when another prisoner was caught masturbating and ran off, the blame was pinned on Richards, and he was slapped with nine months in solitary confinement. “I’m two years away from going home—I’m not looking for trouble—and now I’m in the hole and have this on my record.”
>Notorious gangster Whitey Bulger, now 87 years old, was thrown in solitary confinement for 30 days earlier this year after a male corrections officer claimed to find him masturbating alone at 3 am in his Florida jail cell. (Bulger says his sex life is over—he was just applying powder to a genital irritation.)
>“Private space just doesn’t exist in a lot of these places—inmates are living in what look like warehouses with rows and rows of bunk beds; sometimes the bathrooms don’t have stalls, so any masturbating is essentially done in front of others.”
>prisoners are also dealing with residuals from Christian-based prison programs like President George W. Bush’s InnerChange Freedom Initiative, later ruled unconstitutional in 2006. That program taught prisoners that masturbation, homosexuality, and premarital sex—not to mention Dungeons & Dragons—were sinful. https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-its-illegal-for-prisoners-to-masturbate/#:~:text=Public%20masturbation%20(and%20it's%20pretty,to%20sexual%20assault%20or%20fights.