Prison Officer Faces Suspension for Showing "Brokeback Mountain"
by Margo Williams,
365Gay.com Boston Bureau
April 9, 2006 - 12:01 am ET

(Boston, Massachusetts) A Norfolk State Prison worker faces a disciplinary hearing for allowing inmates at the biggest penitentiary in Massachusetts to watch "Brokeback Mountain" - or at least most of it.

The film was abruptly ended 10 minutes before the closing credits on orders from the warden.
The prison has a contract with a video distribution company and films are shown in the gym, and in the cases of some prisoners shown in their cells.

A spokesperson for the prison system that the warden ordered the movie blackened because it depicted sexual content, but denied that the gay theme of the film had anything to do with the decision.

“Norfolk does not allow the viewing of films with sexual content or violence against prison guards,” Diane Wiffin told the Boston Herald.

Wiffin said that the motion picture should have been screened in advance and the worker who was supposed to have done that will be disciplined. That could involve a simple slap on the wrist, a notation in his or her employment file, or a suspension.

The worker, who has not been named, won't get any sympathy from the union that represents prison guards.

“We don’t need to foster that kind of atmosphere in there. It already exists," Ken Ferullo, vice president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union told the Herald.

"These guys are alone together, some of them forever. We’re already running ‘Brokeback prison.' "

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