The man, 57-year-old John Alexander, is serving a life sentence in Michigan’s Kinross Correctional Facility for second-degree fleeing from police.

According to his lawsuit, his friends sent him copies of Foreplay Magazine for his birthday, The Messenger reports.

The magazine’s publisher specialises in “prison entertainment” and the content is explicitly intended to stay within prison mail policies.

Alexander is accusing the state’s Department of Corrections of violating his First Amendment rights and has suggested the lawsuit could grow into a class-action case.