Sex Outlets Urged for Prison Inmates

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be using a wife or another wornan in conjugal visits, it

becomes a moral issue.

"While I feel it would be highly immoral to bring in a wife or another woman to use them to fulfill a sexual drive, it still should be extensively studied and considered because of the situation at the penitentiary.

"Whether just wives, or other women, were brought in would be up to the administrators.

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The Rev. Jeff Hopper, assistant professor of theology at the Methodist Theological School near Dela ware, says he "has an open mind" in the question of conjugal visits.

"I feel where such a practice is administered sensibly, it could be a constructive element in bringing about a man's rehabilitation," he said.

Warden Ernest L. Maxwell of Ohio Penitentiary, a veteran of more than 35 years in penal work in the United States and in foreign countries, said he doubts the American public is ready for "that type of thing. Such visits are a long way off in Ohio.'

Commissioner Maury C. Koblentz of the division of correction believes weekend furloughs for honor prisoners might be more readily acceptable and workable.

"Conjugal visits were never mentioned," Koblentz said, "during a Washington meeting of 33 penal administrators from throughout the United States recently.

"If they had felt such a program had merit, it most certainly would have been discussed."

He said conjugal visits have been instituted in some countries, such as Mexico, and in a southern state, but have not been a recognized practice in northern states. The Rev. Mr. Sagendorf believes a factor in his being barred stems from the proposal he and other interns submitted to penitentiary administrators in which they recommended Playboy magazine be sold to inmates. He said they thought this would lead to a "womanoriented" mood, instead of a homosexual one.  ̈

HE SAID THE interns believed such a magazine would provide entertainment, articles on important subjects by leading authors and a sexual outlet for inmates through the pinup photographs.

The proposal was rejected-

because, penitentiary officials said, such a magazine could stir up unnecessary problems among inmates.

Other criticism by the Rev. Mr. Sagendorf focuses on guards carrying nightsticks (no longer done in federal prisons) and the meager diet provided prisoners confined for punishment in solitary cells (The Hole). In mess halls, prisoners still do not face each other.

Segregation practices, in which Negroes are marched at the end of columns, placed in designated cells and seated at the rear of mess halls, are necessary, penitentiary officials say, due to conditions in the old institution.

Little is known publicly, of internal operations, proponents of change say, because prisoners fear punishment or loss of privileges and employes fear loss of jobs for talking.

Prison authorities say the penitentiary should not be construed as an example of the Ohio prison system. Its outdated facilities, they believe, give a distorted view of operations.

THEY INDICATED they are willing to consider recommendations for change, provided they come from knowledgeable authorities, experienced in the practical operation of a maximum security prison.

Present practices, they add, are necessary for the protection of society and the prisoner and result from lack of facilities and a pay scale that prevents hiring of adequate professional help.

The Rev. Mr. Hopper said the various recommendations of the board, of which he is a member, later will go to the state's two Methodist conferences in 1967.

He said it is hoped numerous meetings can be held with state correctional leaders to discuss rehabilitation and restrictions. He invited other state groups to join the effort, possibly to carry them to the next state legislature.

NEXT-Censorship protests.