By C1 Staff
ANTWERP, Belgium — A prison in Belgium allows inmates to access adult films and the internet while incarcerated.
Beveren Prison introduced the program, PrisonCloud, two years ago, permitting restricted internet access to its prisoners.
According to BBC, PrisonCloud gives inmates the ability to explore educational opportunities, communicate with prison officials, view their court records and prepare for life after prison.
Deputy director of Beveren prison, Wim Adriaenssen told BBC that, “Inmates can go to a website where they can see what jobs are offered and they can say to themselves, ‘When I go out, I can work in construction or whatever.’”
Adriaenssen said he has no reservations about the system despite community disapproval.
Each cell is equipped with a TV monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, a headset and special hardware to connect to the server.
Apart from internet access, inmates also have the privilege of making phone calls within their cells.
However, inmates do not have access to Facebook.
One inmate said, “We can play very, very simple games like Tetris and the old school stuff. We can rent two types of movies. The normal movies cost about €3 and the other movies are €6 or €7.”
By “other” movies, the inmate is referring to adult films.
Despite continued community dissent, Adriaenssen said, “People will be shocked but watching porn in prison, especially for young people who are incarcerated, it’s a kind of an ersatz for something else. It’s also in our interest to keep the, in human conditions and that means providing for certain things. Society changes, prison changes.”