Court affirms prisoner’s right to send sperm-stained letters

As reported by The Sun, based on a news story out of Germany:

A prisoner has won the right to send letters to his fiancée from jail splattered with his semen, a German court has ruled.

The prison administration punished the inmate over the correspondence, after the jailhouse letters were found to be a health hazard.

But the drug felon serving a multi-year sentence challenged the decision to punish him by filing a lawsuit.

He reportedly claimed the ban suppressed his sexual fantasies and violated his fundamental right to free development of his personality, German legal journal Beck Aktuell said.

The prisoner also argued in the lawsuit that if prison staff felt disgusted when searching the letters, they could wear gloves during the search.

He also countered that it was not a criminal offence to send the fluids in the mail.

The Hagen Regional Court ruled in favour of the prisoner and found there was “no legal basis” for the disciplinary measure to have been taken against him.

The court found the man had not breached his duty to support health and hygiene measures inside the jail, because this requirement was intended to ensure the health and safety of prisoners not staff.

The prisoner was found to have committed one violation; by including the semen, the mail was found to be a package rather than a letter, the legal journal said.

Inmates are required to obtain permission before sending packages under German law.