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Stopping federal inmates from watching skin flicks in prison has proven to be a bit of a challenge for the Conservative government, newly released records suggest.

Last year, then-public safety minister Vic Toews announced that he had “put an end to this unacceptable practice” after it emerged that inmates at Nova Scotia’s Springhill Institution were ogling X-rated material on their TVs.

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But this past February, the subject of “sexually explicit materials in prison” was back on the agenda in a meeting between Toews and Don Head, commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada.

A briefing document prepared for the minister in advance of that meeting stated that an absolute ban on prison porn was virtually “impossible.”

The document, obtained by Postmedia News under access-to-information legislation, stated that public safety staff had worked over the years with corrections staff to “arrive at a point where there are reasonable limits placed on offenders with respect to their access to sexually explicit materials” — for instance, “where it contradicts their correctional plan or is seen as an issue with respect to the management of a sex offender.”