Pornographer’s Prison Sentence Sends Message: Sexual Exploitation Unacceptable

The sentencing of pornographer Ira Isaacs to four years in prison on Wednsday for violating federal obscenity laws sends a strong message to the porn industry and to the U.S. Department of Justice that the sexual exploitation of women by pornographers is wrong. So says Morality in Media.

Isaacs was convicted of engaging in the business of producing and selling obscene videos and four counts of distributing obscene videos in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last April. The case is the last to be launched by the U.S. Department of Justice under President George W. Bush. Adult obscenity prosecutions were shut down during the Obama Administration when Attorney General Eric Holder who disbanded the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in 2011.

“U.S. District Judge George King, a Clinton appointee to the federal bench, is to be praised for understanding what the Obama Justice Department fails to see–that the sexual exploitation of women by the porn industry is a serious crime,” says Patrick A. Trueman, president of Morality in Media. Trueman served as the chief prosecutor of the Justice Department’s obscenity prosecution section during the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Trueman said he hoped the conviction would encourage Attorney General Holder to begin enforcing federal adult obscenity laws. Morality in Media is asking the U.S. Congress to hold hearings on the pandemic of harm from pornography and the need to enforce federal obscenity laws.

Dawn Hawkins, Morality in Media’s executive sirector, says,  “Pornography leads to the degradation and dehumanization of women.  It is a cause of increased prostitution and sex trafficking, as well as sexual violence against women and children.” She noted that federal law prohibits the distribution of hardcore adult pornography (“obscenity”) on the Internet, on cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TV, in retail shops, through the mail, and by common carrier such as UPS and FedEx. 

“Morality in Media will not rest until the federal laws designed to protect women and children from the porn criminals are fully enforced,” Hawkins concludes.