MONTREAL -- Inmate nightlife in Quebec's 12 federal penitentiaries has become less exciting since mid-March.

That's when Correctional Service of Canada, which runs federal prisons, stripped inmates of access to all pornographic channels after the government discovered prisoners were watching erotic television on the sly.

Programs with sexual content is not permitted in federally run prisons.

Prison authorities thought they had choked the stream of porn by banning channels like Playboy, but that didn't stop prisoners from reaching around the system.

Serge Abergel, spokesman for CSC, said that inmates were able to subscribe to certain wholesome channels that became naughty and broadcasted erotica after 11 p.m.

Not anymore.

Abergel defended the government's slip-up.

"Our establishments continuously review programming," he said. "Sometimes, content on some channels, which at first seemed acceptable, stopped being OK."

He added that inmates who were able to access porn had to subscribe to the channel and paid for the service themselves, and not with taxpayer money.

Jean-Claude Bernheim, president of a Quebec prisoners' rights group, said that prison security and supervision is "being neglected."

He said when he learned that prison guards didn't realize inmates were accessing porn, the story reminded him of when prisoners used to hire strippers to dance for them during certain prison activities.

"It took years before the authorities did anything," he said.

Bernheim didn't defend porn-watching inmates, but told QMI Agency the government was depriving prisoners of something "perfectly legal."

It costs the Canadian government $313 per day to house each of its 14,400 prisoners.