Give Me My Prison Porn!

A Macomb County Michigan man is suing the State of Michigan demanding that he and his fellow be allowed porn in prison.  I realize I'm not breaking this story or even the first to re-blawg the story, but I'm one of the few blawgers to have actually been an inmate.  One of the remarkable things about life in federal custody is that there is a bizarre to me at least, form of prison porn.  Before I talk about what passes for prison porn let's look at the story from MLive.com:

"Gov. Rick Snyder and the state are subjects to a lawsuit filed by a Macomb County inmate over a prison pornography ban, among things, reports show. The Detroit News: "A Macomb County inmate is suing Gov. Rick Snyder and the state, claiming he is being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because jail rules ban pornographic materials.

"Kyle Richards (pic) filed the five-page handwritten lawsuit June 10 in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He wants a judge to let inmates possess erotic/pornographic materials along with personal televisions, video game consoles and radios." [ . . . ]

According to The News, state prisons allow inmates to possess pornographic material with a few exceptions. Playboy and Penthouse magazines are allowed, but porn depicting simulated rape, bestiality and sadomasochism is forbidden."
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At Club Fed, Playboy and Penthouse were not permitted let alone some of these more exotic....mmmm tastes.  But there was there were these "urban" flavored publications that featured photography of scantily-clad (understatement alert) women with a particular emphasis on the Boo-tay. 

I spent 3 years in the US Army 1972-1975, so I've seen my share of centerfolds, but this "acceptable" prison porn was pretty bizarre stuff.  Like R.Crumb caricatures of women with impossibly large butts (a tame example, right) covered by a line of something that looks like dental floss.  It was everywhere.  Until I went to prison I didn't know this stuff existed.  Since then, friends tell me you can buy this sort of publication or order it for your absent loved one via inner OurTown gas stations and cigarette vendors.  Really?

One of my bunkees during my 5 months at Morgantown was this big sweet kid from Louisville, Ky, nicknamed, Big.  At 6'7" this was an appropriate name for my soft spoken pal.  Big's hustle related to obtaining and re-selling these slightly pornographic photos of girls that looked "homemade" as if from your girlfriend or wife.  These were pretty nasty things, and guys would come by our cubicle to thumb through these 6x4s.  The conversation over these pics were hysterical as these guys would talk about the girls in the pics as if they were girls they actually knew from the streets.  I think Big got these sent to him from classifieds at the back of the Thug-porn publications.  Frequently during locker sweeps, Big would lose his collection of pictures because of the contraband limitation on the number of personal photographs and publications each inmate was limited to at any given time.