Denmark to ban cash in largest prisons to fight crime

COPENHAGEN – Denmark’s government says it will ban cash in the country’s largest prisons and require inmates to pay electronically, to make it “easier to follow the money flow in and out.”

Justice Minister Soeren Pape Poulsen says “there is a risk that people in criminal circles exploit their friends’ incarceration to hide money.”

Pape Poulsen says the change would be implemented before summer.

It is unclear how many of Denmark’s prisons would be affected. Inmates in closed prisons already pay electronically for food and other items they buy behind bars.