Women Lawyers Sue to Stop Masturbating Inmates

Even pizza didn't get them to stop
By Linda Hervieux,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 13, 2017 10:15 AM CST
Women Lawyers Sue to Stop Masturbating Inmates
Inmates at the Cook County Jail in Chicago wait to be processed for release.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green File)

Public masturbation is so rampant in Chicago's Cook County Jail that officials offered inmates pizza to stop, a federal lawsuit claims. Hundreds of female public defenders and law clerks working at the jail and other lockups have had to endure "on an almost daily basis" inmates who "have repeatedly exposed their penises, masturbated, and engaged in other acts of sex-based aggression," along with threats and harassment, Reuters reports. The legal action filed last week says authorities have done little to stop the "heinous sexual misconduct." Efforts to curb the behavior have failed, including offering detainees pizza if they went 30 days without masturbating. Jumpsuits preventing access to genitals also didn't work: Wearers burned them in microwaves, per the suit. Calling themselves "Savage Life," ringleaders organize the harassment and award "points" for each offense, per USA Today.

A Cook County Sheriff's Office rep denies the pizza story but tells Reuters that "this kind of behavior unfortunately is prevalent in correctional settings." She says more than 200 of the 6,400 inmates have been charged with indecent exposure this year, but she adds that being slapped with a misdemeanor means little to men facing murder raps. A lawyer for female correctional officers who filed a similar suit tells the Chicago Tribune it's "outrageous" to suggest "that nothing can be done. ... This is not how correctional institutions have to be run." But the Public Defender's office says it can't support any measures that would "significantly increase penalties for detainees who engage in this behavior," per Reuters. (A female Texas lawmaker wants to fine men for "unregulated masturbatory emissions.")

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