Prisoner correspondence can be monitored, court confirms

Oversight: security cameras at the Limmattal prison. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza

A supreme court verdict in Switzerland has made it clear that the systematic surveillance of prisoner communications is legally permissible, even in the case of those serving early sentences.

The case was brought by a woman from canton Vaud, arrested in June 2017 for having shot her daughter, several times.

Having been placed in preventive detention, the woman, though not yet definitively sentenced, was allowed in June 2018 to begin serving her prison term early.

However, she appealed the fact that her letters and telephone calls would continue to be monitored during this period. She claimed that her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights were infringed by the oversight.

The Federal Supreme Court disagreesExternal link: although prisoners retain the right to communicate with family members, the court said that this communication can be monitored, restricted, or stopped altogether by prison authorities for reasons of security or ongoing investigations. The legal status of

Conversations and correspondence with a lawyer are exempt from such oversight, the judges said.

The systematic opening of postal correspondence is justified in order to prevent any illegal substances being sent into prison. The court also said that controlling correspondence helps to prevent the possibility of new crimes being orchestrated from within the prison.