Porn to be restricted for Norway inmates

Norway’s prisoners may be facing porn curbs, following the local authorities’ move that inmates can be denied access if the information “threatens peace, order and security” at the facility.

So far, prisoners in Norway have been allowed free access to pornography – provided it doesn’t involve violence or children, the Local reported.

However, a new memo by the Norwegian Directorate for Correctional Services reads that porn can be banned if the data poses “specific and high” risks to peace and security.

Also, the memo details on the porn limits for prisoners.

"As long as there is no specific legal basis for denial, we must accept access, even though we don't like it," Knut Are Svenkerud, the leader of the Norwegian Union for Correctional Workers told Bergens Tidende newspaper.

He added, though, that the union would like to see porn prohibited altogether, as it can become “a commodity with illegal 'rental' between inmates.”

And there are other, more gruesome risks involved.

"We also know that some inmates have had pornographic material that simulates rape of uniformed officers. We are there to do a job, but may end up in fantasies we would like to be left out of."

The leader of The Norwegian Prison and Probation Officers Union Rita Braten agrees with her colleagues.

"It is uncomfortable to search someone who is in a cell with pornography. The same applies if an employee must enter the cell and the inmate is watching a pornographic film," she said.

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However, many disagree, saying that the memo could see the violation of the inmates’ constitutional rights.

It comes just a couple of weeks after Anders Breivik, the notorious murderer of 77 people in 2011, was admitted to the Oslo University, and will be studying political sciences from his cell.

Norway has the lowest rates of convict recidivism after release, at 20 percent, and its prison facilities operate according to the ‘normality principle’, meaning that life behind bars should resemble that outside.