Swedish Court Says Reading Pornography is Sex Offenders' Right

According to the Associated Press, if you are a sex offender in Sweden, it is now your official right to read pornography, even behind bars. This change was made following an actual legal court ruling. However, with this 'right' ruling, there has followed much controversy, especially from the general public and Sweden's police and prison guard forces.

The ruling came last week and was made by the Supreme Administrative Court located in Sweden's capital of Stockholm. The official ruling stated that the Swedish Prison and Probation Service had absolutely no right to deny a specific convict access to his personal stash of porn. The convict was behind bars for date rape, said the Associated Press.

During the case, prison and police officials argued to the court that reading and looking at porn would interfere with the date rape convict's chance to get better during his rehabilitation program. They believed that viewing the porn would only encourage and inspire the man to repeat his horrific date rape offense when back out on the streets.

"It increases the risk of assault for other interns and it is provocative for personnel," argued Elisabeth Kwarnmark, a prison psychologist.

In response, the Supreme Administrative Court said the ruling cannot and will not be appealed. They also stated that the prison service could not prove that pornography magazines put the Swedish prison institution in danger for prison officials or convicts, reported the the Associated Press. The court said they would make sure that the ruling was upheld.

Since the ruling, Swedish prison officials and the police force have not stopped their fight. They have personally asked the government to ban porn in all of Sweden's prisons.

Although pornography magazines are now officially permitted in Swedish prisons, adult movies, tv channels, and websites are not. Convicts are also banned from looking at or reading child pornography and violent, S&M pornography, said the Associated Press.