A state lawmaker is proposing legislation that would prohibit inmate couples from getting married at Alaska’s prisons.
The Juneau Empire reports Anchorage Republican Rep. Bob Lynn introduced the bill Friday, which he says is a matter of fairness. Lynn says it’s not fair to inmates whose partners live outside prison walls, when other inmates get married in prison and are able to share a cell with their spouse.
The legislation would apply to both same-sex and heterosexual couples. It would ban any individual from getting married to an inmate on prison grounds.
According to the Alaska Department of Corrections, four of the six applications for prison marriages in the last half of 2015 were approved. The marriages were between inmates and another person who wasn’t in DOC custody.
