Isn’t going blind punishment enough?

As detailed in this AP story, this week a “Florida jail inmate was convicted of indecent exposure after a guard complained that he had masturbated in his cell.”  Here are more details:

A jury took 45 minutes to convict Terry Lee Alexander, 20, of the misdemeanor on Wednesday.  The judge sentenced him to 60 days in the county jail.  He had faced up to a year.

In November, Broward County Deputy Coryus Veal, who was monitoring Alexander’s cell from a centrally located control room, saw him masturbating while he was sitting on his bunk, alone in his cell.  She testified that she brought the charge against him the third time he masturbated in view of her.

Veal has brought similar charges against seven other inmates in six months. The sheriff’s office encourages deputies to file criminal charges to discourage masturbating in the county’s jails, said Elliot Cohen, an agency spokesman. He said privacy is one of the rights inmate give up in jail.

Kathleen McHugh, Alexander’s attorney, said her client did nothing wrong. She said he was alone in his cell, which was not open to the public.  “I think the government’s gone awry,” McHugh said. “Has it been a slow year in crime that they’ve got to go prosecute masturbation in the Broward County Jail?”

For those interested in serious Friday debate, please discuss in the comments whether Mr. Alexander could make any reasonable constitutional arguments against his prosecution and sentencing.

For those interested in comical Friday fun, please discuss in the comments possible alternative titles for this post (I considered and rejected as too crude “What a jerk!” and “What ever happened to compassionate release for prisoners?”).   Commentors can perhaps gain inspiration from this slang list, but please try to keep this blog family friendly.