Genital Modification in Prison or: Penal Penile Implant Practitioners and Their Patients

Where is the Line?

In the absence of resources, ingenuity tends to thrive. There are few places where a person might find themselves more poorly resourced than in prison. In a previous episode, the one with writer and former inmate Ryan Martin, we learned of homemade masturbatory devices that prisoners make from latex gloves and tobacco canisters. This bold sort of indigent inventiveness will play a large role in today’s story.

One of the most endearing things about our new forensic autopsy specialist cohost Holly, is that she will from time to time, without context or warning, say things like, “today at work I had pull a domino out of a dead man’s penis”. It was this sentiment exactly that led to today’s episode. We’ve talked about genital modification before on Where is the Line? In fact, our Shannon Larratt episode might rank near or at the top of our growing list of episodes that people have difficulty listening to in their entirety.

The point is that even when performed by a professional and in a safe and sterile environment, the notions of genital modification and genital mutilation still just give some people heebie-jeebies.

Imagine now what happens when you take these same, to many people unsettling, procedures out of the safety and relatively regulated environment of a tattoo parlor, and instead perform them… in a jail cell. What happens when operations like these are performed without the benefit of sterile conditions? What might someone use in the place of a scalpel when stainless steel is contraband? And when pre-made silicon implants are unavailable, what items might suffice for implantation into ones most sensitive of areas? Find out on this episode of Where is the Line?