Lyons v. Gilligan

• Jurisdiction: United States

Lyons v. Gilligan

382 F. Supp. 198 (1974)

Facts

Michael Lyons and another prisoner at the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio, and their wives, filed a Section 1983 lawsuit with the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, alleging that various state officials, because of the absence of opportunity for conjugal visits with their spouses, denied them their constitutional rights to marital privacy, and this constitutes cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Both prisoners were married before their incarceration and regularly engaged in intimate sexual intercourse with their wives. The prisoners also contended that sex and private displays of sexual intimacy between inmates and their visitors are prohibited. They also argued that the correctional facility did not have facilities where couples could engage in sexual intimacy. The prisoners claimed that the correctional institution's rules prohibiting sexual intimacy between married inmates denies them their privacy. Moreover, the fact that inmates are married places an affirmative duty on prison officials to provide private places for conjugal visits.

Issue

Do married prisoners have a constitutional right to have marital relations?

Holding by the U.S. District Court

The court granted the state officials motion to dismiss the inmates' complaint. The court held that prisoners have no fundamental right to privacy that requires officials to provide private facilities for married couples and no privcy right to prevent rules prohibiting sexual intimacy between prisoners and their spouses. Also, the absence of conjugal visits does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment within the meaning of the U.S. Constitution.

Reason

In deciding this case, the court cited several cases where other federal courts held that inmates and prisoners did not have a constitutional entitlement to conjugal visits or sexual intimacies with their spouse. The cases included Stuart v. Heard (359 F.Supp. 921, S.D. Tex. 1973), Tarlton v. Clark (441 F.2d 384, 1971), and Payne v. District of Columbia (253 F.2d 867, D.C. Cir. 1958). In these cases, the courts ruled that the denial of marital relations to prisoners did not constitute a violation of the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendments. Where the Eighth Amendment is concerned, inmates contend that policies against conjugal visits have subjected them and their spouses to cruel and unusual punishment. The court disagreed with this contention...