Denmark’s government has proposed a draft law that would restrict prison inmates serving life sentences from communicating with much of the outside world.
The bill, submitted to lawmakers this week by the Justice Ministry, comes after public frustration over how Peter Madsen, who was responsible for one of the most heinous crimes in recent Danish memory, pursued relationships with female admirers while incarcerated. Madsen, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence, met and married his wife while in prison; he also had a long-distance relationship with a teenage minor.
If passed, the bill would limit correspondence and visitation rights during the first 10 years of detention to people the prisoner knew before incarceration. It would also ban them from sharing details about their criminal activities on social media or on podcasts. There are narrow exemptions for prisoners whose families decline to contact them, according to a Justice Ministry summary of the law.
Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup said in a statement that detainees facing life behind bars should not be able to use Danish prisons as dating centers or platforms to brag about their crimes.
