CT Prisoner Sues to Retain Renaissance Art Book Deemed Porn

CHESHIRE, CT—When it comes to prisons and porn, times certainly have changed. This author well remembers that back in the Fall of 1984, in Allenwood (PA) Federal Prison Camp, it was an infraction to feed the polydactyl cats that roamed the property, but no one seemed to give a shit about inmates' reading matter, which included several issues of Screw magazine that the inmates lent to one another, and even the occasional issue of Playboy or Penthouse. But times have changed, especially in state prisons, where management is far more responsive to conservative pressure groups and politicians, and while we don't know what policy was set by the Connecticut Department of Correction regarding nude photos and/or porn in the first decade of this century, as of 2012, thanks to a conservative state judge, inmate Akove Ortiz was denied the right to possess magazines like Playboy—and now, they've taken away inmate Dwight Pink Jr.'s copy of The Atlas of Foreshortening, a book that's not likely to raise an eyebrow in any other venue. See, Pink, who'll be spending most of the next half-century behind bars for having murdered a 35-year-old father of two by shooting him five times in the head and stabbing him seven times through the heart with a sword(!), seems to have developed a yen to learn how to draw the human form, and he decided that The Atlas of Foreshortening would be a good reference book on how to use perspective in his art—a technique that was absent from all paintings and drawings prior to the Renaissance. Trouble is, the book uses photos of nude humans to illustrate its lessons, and that's where Pink ran afoul of Department of Correction Administrative Directive 10.7, which bans all material that contains "pictorial depictions of sexual activity or nudity." Just one caveat, though: In what might be a nod toward the Supreme Court's Miller test for obscenity, the rules exempt "materials which, taken as a whole, are literary, artistic, educational or scientific in nature"—which would certainly seem to apply to a Renaissance art book. Indeed, one reviewer described it as "extremely useful to students and practitioners of the fine art of figure drawing," while another deemed it a "valuable reference for fine artists, sculptors, illustrators, designers, and others." But the Department of Correction doesn't see it that way, having commented just after Directive 10.7 was put into effect that "the ban was intended to improve the work environment for prison staffers, especially female staffers, who might be inadvertently exposed to pornography." So Pink sued—as have about half a dozen other inmates who've suffered similar bans, according to Connecticut Attorney General spokeswoman Jaclyn Falkowski, whose cases in both federal and state courts are "still being litigated." Indeed; the state filed its response to Pink's lawsuit yesterday, arguing that Pink's First Amendment rights weren't violated, and "Any injury or harm, if any, was caused solely by plaintiff’s own acts, omissions, or conduct and was not due to any wrongful conduct by the defendants." Still, Quinnipiac University law professor William Dunlap, while conceding that the courts have generally upheld bans where the state has proven to have had a legitimate goal "such as maintaining safety in the prisons or keeping the material out of the hands of sex offenders," says Pink stands a chance if he "can show it was improperly used in his case to suppress art or literature." The Atlas of Foreshortening isn't the first book Pink has ordered that prison officials seized before delivery. One was Shameless Art, which features paintings by such respected pin-up artists as Gil Elvgren, while another was Gentle Birth Practices, about alternative childbirth practices—but hey, the guy's gonna be locked up till he's 100, so he's gotta do something to pass the time, eh?