Prison sex requires consent, court says The balance of power between prisoners and their overseers is pretty one-sided in favor of the overseers. When an inmate accuses a guard of sexual harassment, a federal appeals court says, the guard must be prepared to prove that whatever happened was with the inmate’s consent. As the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put it this week, “because of the enormous power imbalance between prisoners ... [News Source]