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By JESSICA FENDER
Staff Writer
Arousing undergarments such as thong underwear and bust-enhancing "water brassieres" won't be allowed into state prisons after Aug. 1, when a newly revised set of visitation rules takes effect.
Prisoners "don't need any help getting turned on" or out of hand, said Correction Commissioner George Little of the underwear regulations.
The dress code revisions, which also prohibit steel-toed boots and tattered clothing, are part of an effort to tighten a range of visitor policies and make sure they're consistent across the state, Little said.
Other rule revisions limit who can visit and when.
"Visitations are an important part of the prison experience," he said. "We want them to be as safe as possible and as uneventful as they can possibly be."
While there are no thong-detectors being installed at visitor gates, anyone caught wearing the banned lingerie during pat downs or other inspections won't be allowed in, Little said.
Water bras are undergarments lined with pouches of water to enhance bust lines.
Policy aimed at liaisons
A handful of policies — like a minimum four-year waiting period before ex-employees of the prisons can visit friends behind bars — are meant to clamp down on inappropriate romantic liaisons between prisoners and staff, the commissioner said.
"One big problem we have is relationships springing up inside institutions," Little said. "We don't want to encourage someone to come to a prison to hunt for a husband or a wife."
He said the affairs are "not pervasive," but can lead to security breaches and the smuggling of contraband.
One such tryst between a prison nurse and an inmate led in 2005 to a failed escape attempt and the shooting of two guards, one of whom died.
With 19,200 inmates and 5,300 employees, the corrections facilities could see two dozen inappropriately amorous ties between staff and prisoners if even 0.5 percent decided to hook up, Little said.
The guard-prisoner rules make sense to Alice Arceneaux, executive director of Reconciliation Ministries. Her advocacy group represents the families of the incarcerated across the state.
But other policies go too far, she believes. One example? The six-month period that recently released felons must wait before visiting relatives still inside.
Prison visitors already face a gantlet of regulations, she said.
"When I read these policies, I cried for the families," Arceneaux said. "It's really heartbreaking. The rules get a little bit worse."
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