8 Targets in Prison Masturbation Cases

A Florida inmate convicted this week of masturbating while alone in his jail cell was not the only one who had a good time, he is one of eight targets, along with state taxpayers.

Given the likely prevalence of such commonplace behavior in state prisons (not to mention boarding schools, seminaries and military barracks), criminally charging any Broward County inmate with masturbation represents a major waste of prosecution dollars, writes Fred Grimm in the Miami Herald ("Justice went blind in this jailhouse case").

ABA Journal says that in addition to the 20-year-old inmate convicted this week, three others were charged in similar cases and have accepted pleas. 3 others still are waiting for trial (one case was dismissed). Surprise. All were charged by the same female deputy. I guess she does not like men playing their own flute, or marching to the "beat" of their own drummer. This is perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever heard. How can you charge someone for masturbation?

Grimm also questions whether the cure is worse than the disease. Prospective jurors were publicly questioned about their own masturbation habits, as noted in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, before Terry Lee Alexander—who was already facing a 10-year robbery sentence—was convicted of indecent exposure Tuesday and sentenced to 60 days, as reported by the Herald.

During Alexander's trial, the female deputy described how she watched him on the monitor. She described it in vivid detail right down to the jerking arm motions. One would think she were in love, the way she absorbed details. This last paragraph from the article sums it all up.

''It was very vulgar. Very indecent,'' the deputy testified, describing the new crime of which Alexander has now been convicted, the column concludes. "But she could have been characterizing the prosecution, the trial, the verdict and the obscene, indecent, vulgar, lascivious, downright stupid waste of time and money."