# Why is porn banned in American prisons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 29, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185 "2012-10-29T04:26:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/61 "2012-10-30T19:12:17Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Oh, believe me. It’s no vacation. Well it’s just like Club Med minus the access to porn, though, right? ---
**Author:** ![Atakapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Atakapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atakapa)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/62 "2012-10-31T01:31:37Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Precisely. It’ll make a bad situation slightly better. Sadly, there’s a rather sizable faction of the populace who seem to get a vicarious thrill from making the lives of prisoners as miserable as possible. I doubt they’ll be satisfied until we’re hanging drug addicts by their testicles over cauldrons of boiling urine. [QUOTE=Ibn Warraq] Cite? [/QUOTE] [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract\_id=913013](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=913013) [http://www.toddkendall.net/internetcrime.pdf](http://www.toddkendall.net/internetcrime.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/63 "2012-10-31T02:19:22Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > Well it’s just like Club Med minus the access to porn, though, right? People who get their image of prison from movies and TV have the mistaken idea that prison is an exciting place - dangerous and violent, yes, but exciting. Completely wrong. Prison is like the most boring place you can imagine. You’ve probably sat in a doctor’s waiting room at some point and you were probably bored. Imagine how bored you’d be if you had to sit there all day. Now imagine if you had to sit in that waiting room for five years. The biggest danger in prison isn’t getting raped or stabbed. The biggest danger is getting institutionalized. That’s when your brain basically stops and you surrender to the routine. You just walk around doing the same thing every day without thinking. Eventually you lose the ability to think for yourself - you need the routine to function. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/64 "2012-10-31T02:21:43Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > All admirable goals to be sure, but I have here advocated for teaching them “How to handle your frustration in ways that don’t lead you to violate whatever disciplinary regulations apply to you.” For some reason, I feel that if you find yourself jailed, this is an especially pertinent life lesson to have imparted. More so than reading, writing, and arithmetic, or even vocational training. These latter would make post-manumission life easier; but learning how to follow the law even when you might not want to is especially vital. (And since most inmates will like to avoid returning to jail, these are techniques that they—or the better angels of their nature, at least—want to learn too.) > > My kudos to you for trying to make my position appear ridiculous by larding it with worthwhile, but still secondary, embellishments. Yes, because arbitrarily creating extra rules is the way to make people become more likely to follow the others. That’s why strict parents always wind up with well-behaved kids. If the threat of punishment was going to stop you, it should have stopped you before prison, at least after sentencing. Further punishment will not make you more likely to learn. It’s stupid to try the same thing over. It’s even dumber for it to be something that correlates with more crime being committed. Furthermore, I’m not convinced that criminals are just people without the ability to follow laws they disagree with. I think most violent criminals have an anger problem. They get so angry that the normal reasons for not being violent don’t occur to them until it is too late. And while treating an anger problem does eventually involve making someone angry while telling them not to react, you first have to teach them the latter part–how to not react to being angry. As QtM says, the idea that prison actually rehabilitates is silly. There’s very little focus on actually trying to teach anyone anything. Shoving people in a room where it’s pretty much attack or be attacked does nothing about teaching you not to be violent. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/65 "2012-10-31T18:06:19Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > As opposed to grouping a large number of violent people together and trying to ensure they have no way to relive their sexual frustrations? All the evidence seems to be that the availability of porn reduces the likelihood of rape. > > As for why we do it; I expect it’s more of the whole idea that prison is about punishment and nothing but punishment regardless of whether that makes sense or not. Why not chemically castrate them for the duration of their sentence? ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/66 "2012-10-31T18:39:25Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > Isn’t one of the remedial purposes of incarceration to teach prisoners that the explanation “Well, I had to jack off in front of you, you wouldn’t let me have pornography!” is unavailing? > > People are in prison, by and large, because they cannot control their impulses (for drugs, for cash, for sexual outlets, for vengeance of slights) and conform to standards of legal behavior. > > Seen in this light, I’m not sure we should be particularly impressed by the argument that this will make their prison lives more delightful. They should be learning how to master frustration. No one can control their urges. Free will is an illusion. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/67 "2012-10-31T18:40:47Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Cite? > > Based on your claim then you should be able to produce evidence that rape was far more common in Warsaw Pact countries, where porn was illegal than Western European countries where it was legal. > > Please do so. > > Thanks. Using the super reliable warsaw pact crime statstics, right? And after all all those countries had exactly the same cultures. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/68 "2012-10-31T18:43:41Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > All admirable goals to be sure, but I have here advocated for teaching them “How to handle your frustration in ways that don’t lead you to violate whatever disciplinary regulations apply to you.” For some reason,\*\* I feel\*\* that if you find yourself jailed, this is an especially pertinent life lesson to have imparted. More so than reading, writing, and arithmetic, or even vocational training. These latter would make post-manumission life easier; but learning how to follow the law even when you might not want to is especially vital. (And since most inmates will like to avoid returning to jail, these are techniques that they—or the better angels of their nature, at least—want to learn too.) > > My kudos to you for trying to make my position appear ridiculous by larding it with worthwhile, but still secondary, embellishments. It doesn’t matter how you feel. This is where criminal justice has been going wrong since day 0. Meaningful macro objectives/goals should be set based upon “how you feel”, such as “grandmothers feeling safe from muggings”. Then everything else should be done, so far as possible, based upon the sceintific method. Brains don’t work the way you seem to think they do. ---
**Author:** ![Atakapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Atakapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atakapa)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185/69 "2012-10-31T20:43:56Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Why not chemically castrate them for the duration of their sentence? The United States has the highest incarceration rate on the planet, with over 2.2 million currently locked up and an additional 5 million on probation or parole. The serial killers and rapists are well in the minority. There’s also the potential health complications of chemical castration; ranging from breast development and muscle loss to bone weakening and cardiac issues. All in all, it’d be much, much more ethically troubling and expensive than just letting Jeffrey the Drug Dealer subscribe to Penthouse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-porn-banned-in-american-prisons/639185.md?page=3)