2008 - Vol 3
Swedes Ban Porn from Prison Cells
Christian attorney Pat Trueman is applauding a decision by authorities in Sweden to ban pornography from prisons in that country. The ban will give officials at correctional facilities the power to prohibit certain pornography and other reading materials that is deemed "unbeneficial" for the prisoner.
Members of Swedish Parliament concluded debate on the proposed ban last week, which will take effect on April 1. The debate came after Parliament received complaints from correctional authorities, who previously had little power in regulating material for prisoners.
In Stockholm, a spokesperson from the Christian Democrat party reportedly said it would not be reasonable to think a prisoner serving time for sex crimes should be given access to pornography. In contrast, the Social Democrat party opposed the proposal, arguing its goes against fundamental human rights to ban pornography.
Pat Trueman with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) in Arizona says even though Sweden is known as a liberal country, officials there recognize the problem pornography poses to prisoners. "What they're seeing, apparently, is the harmful effects that everyone else in the world can see from pornography," he shares. "There's no positive effect -- and so the Swedish Parliament decided that despite their liberal views, they had to stop the harm from pornography.”
Trueman argues that government officials in the U.S. should follow Sweden's lead and investigate how prison inmates are affected by access to porn. "We still haven't been able to face the fact that the Swedish Parliament has faced, and that is that pornography harms," the attorney laments.
In America, he explains, porn is considered "sort of 'macho' material." "The [U.S.] military has trouble with it; we have trouble in general society; we have trouble in the prisons with men who spend their time looking at pornography rather than being rehabilitated or reading good literature or good magazines," he notes.
Trueman argues that prisoners should not have a fundamental right to possess pornography.
Allie Martin,
www.onenewsnow.com