More inmates around U.S. are losing smoking privileges
Posted on 02/07/2003 2:57:39 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
More inmates around U.S. are losing smoking privileges
Opponents fear ban will only add to the tensions in prisons
02/07/2003
NEW YORK - Lighting up a cigarette - one of the few privileges for inmates at Rikers Island - is about to become a thing of the past as the city joins a national trend to restrict smoking behind bars.
The new city ordinance, which goes into effect March 30, is best known for banning smoking in restaurants and bars, but it applies to virtually all workplaces. That includes the city's 14 jails, with an estimated 14,000 prisoners and 10,000 corrections officers.
Already, 17 states ban smoking in prison and 31 have introduced smoking restrictions. While officials say it will reduce health problems, some fear it will heighten tensions in already tense places.
"There will be a great deal of resistance and anger," said Fletcher Alston, a former Rikers inmate who now counsels offenders.
Cigarettes not only relieve stress, he said, they are a common form of currency inside.
"We see this as another form of punishment, perhaps taking away one of the last personal kinds of pleasure prisoners have," said Alice Green, executive director of the Center for Law and Justice, a prisoners rights group in Albany, N.Y.
Others see it as part of a trend to eliminate amenities behind bars. Prisoners in some parts of the country have lost access to weight rooms, television and education programs, said Drew Leder, a philosophy professor at Loyola College in Maryland and the author of The Soul Knows No Bars: Inmates Reflect on Life, Death and Hope.
The Dallas and Tarrant county jails ban smoking for guards and inmates.
"We don't allow smoking in the jails anymore," said Sgt. Don Peritz, Dallas County Sheriff's Department spokesman. "We used to sell tobacco in the commissary; the officers all smoked. Now there is no smoking in any county buildings or in the jail. Employees have to go outside to smoke."
Sgt. Peritz said he knows of no city jails in Dallas County that allow smoking. The city jails set their own policies. In Tarrant County, jailers smoke in designated areas outside the jail, said Sgt. Tim Pratt of the Sheriff's Department there.
The Texas prison system does not allow smoking.
R. Scott Chavez, vice president of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, said that medical staff will need to help inmates through nicotine withdrawal, and corrections officers will have to step up efforts to seize contraband cigarettes.
"But the positive thing is that there are fewer respiratory problems" requiring medical treatment in prison, he said.
The union representing New York City's corrections officers has asked for a gradual ban. But Corrections Department officials say they intend to go smoke-free when the law takes effect.
Staff writer Jason Trahan contributed to this report.
Our county jail has banned smoking for years. They also ban the possession of lighters and matches.
Just the opposite. Break the spirit, control is complimentary.
Good news! I always felt those damn non-somkers belonged behind bars!
--Boot Hill
They still allow smoking in state prisons. But a number of jails in my state (Wisconsin) ban smoking. It isn't for health reasons, but for safety.
Well it should be. If the nanny state can tell me where I can light up, it should protect my tax pocket book and keep the instances of health problems down at the jail.
Boot
Otherwise, the guards consider prison rape resulting in AIDS a sport, but it's SO NICE that evil tobacco has been stamped out.
Idiots.
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