When Gov. Rick Scott's prisons chiefs, Edwin Buss, was touring a prison recently, he was shocked to see a Playboy centerfold pinned up in a common area, visible to inmates, staff members and visitors. Buss ordered the nudity removed and he has just issued a statement officially prohibiting pornography in all Department of Corrections facilities and warning inmates they will be punished to "the maxmum extent" for possessing or passing pornographic materials.

The statement refers to a ban on anything that "verbally or pictorially depicts actual or simulated sexual intercourse, including "nudity creating the appearing of imminent sexual contact (e.g., display or aroused sexual organs)." Buss' full statement is below.  

An obvious question here is, What took the state so long?  Buss created a stir a couple of months ago when he ordered a system-wide ban on smoking inside prisons, which will take effect in September. "My general counsel joked to me, 'You're no fun,'" Buss said. "No cigarettes, no porn."