If you are a woman who’s a public defender, I imagined having inmates masturbate right in front of you is just an occupational hazard. Of course it happens, but I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about how often it happens… because I’m not a public defender and I am a man. It is my privilege to imagine that Miggs gets punished for what he did to Clarice Starling, and that’s pretty much the end of it.
It’s not the end of it. It happens a lot. It happens SO MUCH that public defenders in Chicago are sick of it and want corrections officers to DO SOMETHING. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
“There have always been these incidents since I became a public defender,” said [Public Defender Amy Campanelli], who has been in the office for more than a decade. “But it’s never been like it is today, where it’s like the behavior we’re seeing now, every day, or every other day. It’s just become pervasive. We’ve tried everything.”…
“Of late, it has become a daily occurrence,” she wrote. “Male detainees constantly expose themselves and masturbate while in the lockup behind the courtrooms.”
3 Ways Lawyers Are Finding New Efficiencies With AI
Those who’ve adopted legal-specific systems are seeing big benefits.
The solution public defenders want is for more deputies to be present when they are with prisoners. But prison officials claim that budget cuts mean there aren’t enough staff to keep prisoners from exposing themselves.
And here’s where the public defenders get really screwed. The sheriff’s office in Chicago apparently wants to instill tougher penalties for prisoners who expose themselves. But that would be the OPPOSITE of helping. One of the likely reasons prisoners are jerking off more and more in the (relative) privacy of their lawyers is that prisons have cracked down on masturbating anywhere else. Masturbation bans are causing increased jail time for people doing a natural act, while also denying them spaces to do their business with a modicum of privacy and decency.
It’s like denying a person a pot to piss in and then getting mad when he pees in a Gatorade bottle.
This puts women PDs in the AWFUL position of having to be against increased penalties for inmate indecency, while still wanting measures to be taken to stop masturbation every time they walk in a room.
Chrometa: Turning Time Into Billable Value For Modern Lawyers
Adoption of Chrometa represents more than a technological upgrade; it reflects a professional philosophy that values accuracy, transparency, and efficiency.
It all goes back to over-incarceration and inmate overcrowding. Fewer prisoners would mean more “safe spaces” for jerking off, and more available staff to correct prisoners who masturbate in front of their attorneys.
The system is engorged. We need to decrease the pressure so it stops
Public defenders pushed to breaking point by masturbating inmates [Chicago Sun-Times]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.