Reply #42: This incident has cost this county $22,000, and this deputy needs to find another line of work.

[Maddy McCall]

Here's more from another article:

To discourage the behavior in Broward jails, the Sheriff's Office encourages deputies to file criminal charges, said Elliot Cohen, the agency's spokesman.

Deputy Coryus Veal seems to have taken that mission to heart: She has brought similar charges against seven other inmates in six months.

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Were it not for this pending charge, Alexander would have moved to the state prison system months ago.

Twelve days after the cell incident, he pleaded guilty to the armed robbery and received a 10-year prison sentence.

Broward taxpayers have been footing the bill — $91.29 a day — to keep Alexander in the main jail while the indecent exposure case has worked its way to a trial date. The grand total for Alexander's incarceration in that case is nearly $21,000. On top of that, the public will pay $1,150 for his attorney.

Deputy Veal, 45, a nearly nine-year veteran with the Broward Sheriff's Office, referred all questions to its media relations department when reached at her home Monday evening. "We're not allowed to speak to the media," she said.

In each of the eight arrest affidavits Veal has written, she cites the "vulgar and indecent manner" in which the activity is conducted. Those are key components of the state's indecent exposure statute.

Some critics are appalled at what they call a deputy's "moral crusade" and question the value of prosecuting such cases.

"I would think would be upset that this is how their money is being spent," said Betsy Benson, a Broward assistant public defender who trains new attorneys. "I'm very confused as to why they would think this is a good use of our dollars, our judges, the court's time and the jurors' time."

Inmates indulge in masturbation for a variety of reasons, said Trudy Block-Garfield, a forensic psychologist.

"It's normal human behavior and these people are locked up, they're behind bars and it relieves a variety of stressors including boredom," she said. "But some aren't only doing it to relieve stress or tension or boredom. You have some who do it for shock value."

Shock value wasn't the motive with Alexander and Veal, McHugh said.

"She's completely removed from him in a master control station behind glass, and he's in his own cell sitting on his bunk," she said. "Is it truly vulgar and offensive if one, out of however many deputies that are in that jail, find it offensive?"

More here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbmasturbate0725nbjul25,0,7287506.story