Where are people given the privacy in prison to have sex?

Factual Questions
1

IOW, we hear all the time about prison rape, prison sex, and prison gay, ect. Where do these sex acts occur that others, namely the guards, do not catch the perpetrators? I don’t believe it is legally acceptable to perform sexual acts in view of others even in prison, is it?
Do things usually just happen between cellmates, or are there other places or circumstances where you could get away with having sex?
Along those lines, to perform an act of self sexual gratification, does your cell-mate just pretend he doesn’t notice?

How do these things get done, inquiring minds want to know!

2

Here is a thread that talks about the frequency of sex and rape in prison. Within it are some more good links.

3

The prison ion which my husband works is huge and old, There are over 2,500 inmates and only 500 staff (not all of whom are on at the same time.) Modern prisons are built so that there aren’t any hidden nooks and crannies, but older prisons have lots of them. At night, certain areas are restricted, but it’s still not impossible to find a concealed area.

Inmates don’t usually have their own cells in older prisons. They sleep dormitory-style in bunk beds. Two guards are assigned to each sleeping area, and counts are done to assure that all of the inmates are present, but between patrolls and counts, there’s time to get into mischief.

It’s utterly impossible for the staff to keep an eye on every inmate at all times.

4

My understanding is that sex in prison is never legal. Maybe they have people watch out for guards or something. I imagine it’s pretty easy to tear one off if you give it a few moment’s thought.

But for conjugal visits, I think they use trailers. I read that somewhere.

5

Good discussion of conjugal visits: http://www.fcnetwork.org/reading/conjugal.html

This one has a list of the states that permit conjugal visits: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/Articles/article46.htm (California, Connecticut, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, and Washington as of January 1997).

6

In my state, sexual activities are illegal between inmates is illegal, and they’re punished if they get caught. Yes, there are often lookouts posted, but remember that inmates aren’t usually looking for long lovemaking sessions. It’s a fast, furtive act.

Sex between an inmate and a guard can actually be considered an act of rape even if the inmate is willing because of the power the guard has over the inmate. (Inmates are wards of the state.) Actually, guards aren’t even allowed to have sex with ex-inmates without going through a lot of red tape. They can lose their jobs.

Also, masturbation is against the rules. In practice, most of the guards pretend they didn’t notice if they catch a guy choking the chicken, as long as he’s being discreet.

Violent rape isn’t as much of a problem as people on “the outside” tend to think that it is. In the prison in which my husband works, there has only been one accusation of this in the last two years. Most of prison rape is coercive sex, in the way of, “If you don’t have sex with me, I won’t protect you from the guys who want to beat you up.”

7

Whah? How can they make masturbation against the rules? Isn’t that just asking for riots? I can see a rule against public masturbation, but on what theory do you make masturbation against the rules? Why would it be considered a problem? Especially if the guards never enforce the rule?

8

The rule originated back in the old, moralistic system of corrections, in the days when they were still “penetentiaries” back when masturbation was still thought of as sort of perverted and shameful.

Today, the rule’s application enables the staff to punish those offenders who purposefully masturbate where everyone can see them, or use it to offend the female guards. (Imagine being a female guard with an inmate sitting near you beating off, grinning at you and making lacivious comments, and unable to do anything about it.)

There are also inmates who, uhm, masturbate in unusual ways, and can hurt themselves. (There was one inmate who had to be rushed to the hospital because the broom handle he was using to pleasure himself got stuck.) You also have your auto-erotic asphixiatiors and the like. Those people can then be put into special control where they will be unable to harm themselves.

Everyone understands, of course, that men need some sort of sexual outlet. That’s why if a guard does a surprise bunk inspection and finds a man was fondling his naughty bits beneath the covers, he just ignores it.

Certain types of pornography are also allowed. “Playboy” is permitted, but anything that shows penetration, bondage/dominance/rape fantasy, or images desgned to appeal to those who fancy young children are not. Believe it or not, there are people assigned to porn review, to make sure that everything sent in to the inmates is permissable.

Movies and television shows are given the same scrutiny. My husband is in charge of this-- I’ve teased him that part of his job is watching TV. The inmates get the network channels, but if something on the networks is considered particularly aggregious (such as a show featuring torture) they block it.

The inmates are shown movies, which are selected from a list provided by a company who specializes in this sort of thing. Hubby watches the movies to make sure they’re okay before broadcast. “Hostel” will never be shown in the prison, for example, but the inmates will probably get to see the next “X-Men” movie when it’s released to the company. Anything with graphic sex scenes, or rape, sadmism, underage kids in sexual context will not be shown.

9

‘egregious’

And great posts in this thread, BTW.

10

I was listening to an interviews with Robert Downery Jr about his time in prison. He said that there are certain times while in their cells the prisoners can do whatever they want. If two guys want some privacy to do their business they just use their blankets to block the view into the cell and as long as they don’t take too long the guards dont bother them.

It was an interesting interview. He also revealed that he did have to attack a guy who had disrespected him to get the other inmates to respect him.

11

How do they know the rapes are just not getting reported? Reporting someone doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d want to do in prison.

12

From the book “You are going to prison”, written by an ex-con. Spoiler box because it’s very disturbing.

13

Inmates don’t need to fear retribution. If an allegation is made, the inmate can be immediately transferred to another facility. If he’s especially worried, they’ll lock him up and make it look like he’s in serious trouble for a rules infraction.

Most inmates don’t have the “jack” to make thing happen in other prisons, nor do they have any way of knowing where the accuser has been sent.

The crime is investigated just like any rape allegation, and taken every bit as seriously. Recently, my state has begun an awareness/reducement campaign, and all of the employees had to undergo training to recognize the signs that someone is being victimized.

There are ways of making anonymous complaints and tips in place, such as the “snitch line.” An inmate can call from any phone to the investigator’s office. When my husband was investigator, he told me of one such call in which the inmate kept calling him “mom” whenever another inmate would walk by.

Inmates can keep silent out of a sense of shame, but if an inmate is walking around with bruises, or acting like he’s in pain, the staff want to know why. There are also a group of dedicated snitches in each prison who report when they think something is going on to staff. Nothing much is a secret in prison.

DarrenS, things have changed a LOT in prisons since the 70s. Putting up sheets to block the view of officers would not be permitted under any circumstances. I don’t want to call Robert Downey Jr. a liar, so all I’ll say is that this sort of thing is something that I have never heard of being permitted in any prison in our state.

Sure, there are places they can go out of view, but all an inmate has to do is scream. They’re always within earshot of staff, and many inmates won’t turn a blind eye to such things because they don’t want security crackdowns.

14

I know this is going to sound self-serving but I know what I am speaking of. If you want to know about the reality of prison, the last thing you should do is talk to a prisoner. Prisoners have an ability to lie that is astonishing - it’s like lying is the gateway crime that leads to the serious stuff like murder and rape. Normal people will hear a prisoner telling a story and think, “This must be true. Nobody could possibly make up a story this elaborate and detailed and go on at this length with a lie.” But yes, indeed, they can.

So on the subject of “covered wagons” - I’ve worked 23 years in prison, including the big maxes. And I have never heard anything that remotely sounded like this ever happening. If a group of prisoners tried to set up something like that, we would be all over them in seconds. They’d be lucky if they got as far as putting one chair on top of another before a guard asked them “what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

15

On other things in Lissa’s post: New York has somewhat different policies apparently. We don’t outlaw masturbation per se. Lewd exposure and sexual harassment is prohibited, but what a prisoners does in private is his or her own business.

We also have looser restrictions of movie choices. We allow prisoners to watch basically any movie except X-rated ones. So soft-core is allowed as long as it stays on the R-side. And movies with questionable themes like violence, gang activity, crime, prison riots, prison escapes, drug use, and sex with minors are all allowed. I don’t agree with this policy but nobody has chosen to seek my opinion on this matter.

16

Government-sponsored study discussing this.

17

… and turned your thoughts away from God. This was certainly the case in Eastern State Pen, the world’s first true penetentiary. Keepers (guards) used to sneak up to the access windows of the solitary cells and try to catch inmates in the act.