The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals revived a challenge from an inmate who claimed his constitutional rights were violated when correctional officials forced him to remove penis marbles.
“Penis marbling” is also referred to as “pearling” or “genital beading” and involves the insertion of small beads beneath the skin of the penis. It is usually pursued to enhance pleasure during sex.
Adrian F. King Jr. has been incarcerated at Huttonsville Correctional Center (HCC) in West Virginia since 2012. In 2008, he had a number of small beads implanted in his penis, and had several tattoos drawn in and around the genital area. A year into his sentence, King was told to report for a medical examination, whereupon prison officials discovered the penis marbles. Though he claims to have disclosed their existence when first processed after the arrest, the marbles were not noted in his medical file. (RELATED: Escaped Inmate Found Decapitated)
Prison rules forbid such piercings and mutilations. King lost privileges and was sentenced to 60 days of punitive segregation.
During the segregation period, King was taken to a physician at Ruby Memorial Medical Center to have a doctor examine the implants and, if medically necessary, remove them. The attending doctor did not see cause to remove the marbles. On the return trip to HCC, the prison’s deputy warden Grover Rosencrance told him, “Get comfortable you stupid Son of a Bitch, you’ll be placed in Administrative Segregation until you do as I say and have those marbles removed.” When King objected that he could not be wantonly punished for the same offense, Rosencrance said “I can do what the fuck I want.”
In June, 2013, King relented and agreed to have the surgery, though he claims he assented against his will because of the warden’s coercive influence. He has since complained of a variety of painful side effects resulting from the removal procedure. He also claims the scars on his penis remind him of his dead fiancee, and he fears the possibility that his penis will remain numb when he is with another woman. Finally, he says he has been the subject of extensive harassment by staff who call him “Marble Man” and spread salacious rumors about him among homosexual inmates.
Though lower courts have dismissed his claims as frivolous, the Fourth Circuit Tuesday found King in fact has a variety of constitutional claims. “We conclude that King’s complaint properly stated his Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Due Process claims,” the decision read.
The case has been remanded to a lower court for further proceedings.
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