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Guess What's a Hot Commodity in Prison?
Voice of America News ^ | 06/24/2009 | Ted Landphair

Posted on 06/25/2009 1:13:38 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan

The coin of the realm in the Big House - as penitentiaries are inevitably called in prison films - isn't money. Prisoners make only a tiny amount for their labor and are not allowed other valuables. Instead, they gamble and barter for supplies using . . . cigarettes.


A sign of the times in all federal, and many state, prisons

But not so much in real life any more. Last year, pressured by health advocates, officials banned smoking - even in exercise yards - in the nation's 115 federal prisons. And state pens - even in places like Florida, where inmates used to make cigarettes and were given free smokes any time they wanted them - are beginning to follow suit. They do so in the name of improving inmate health and cutting the cost of treating prisoners with lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases.


U.S. prisons have a cleaner, fresher look these days, now that convicts are not filling the air with tar-filled smoke

As a result of the no-smoking policy, arrests of guards as well as visitors for smuggling cigarettes have risen. According to KABC Television in Los Angeles, a contraband pack of 20 cigarettes - which would cost $6 or $7 outside prison walls - can fetch up to $125 on the inside. A cook caught at Folsom State Prison told authorities he made more money sneaking in cigarettes than he did at his job.


As a result of the crackdown on smoking behind bars, cigarettes smuggled in are commanding prices that are 10 times - or more - the going rate outside

In neighboring Nevada, which put a prison smoking ban in effect this month, the head of the employee union said he worries that inmates forced to quit "cold turkey" will turn even testier than they are already. And other correctional unions complain that officers must walk far outside prison walls in all sorts of weather to reach a place where they are allowed to light up. Of course, for most everyone else in these facilities, stepping outside for a smoke is not an option!

Read more of Ted's personal reflections and stories from the road on his blog, Ted Landphair's America.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: cigarettes; corrections; currency; inmates; prison; pufflist; smuggling
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To: MAD-AS-HELL

The only thing SMOKING in the BIG HOUSE is:
The BUCKEYES!!!!!!

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(Property of The Ohio State University)


21 posted on 06/25/2009 1:52:16 PM PDT by TheCause ("that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States")
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To: RandallFlagg

Ping


22 posted on 06/25/2009 1:55:20 PM PDT by arbee4bush (Palin!!!!)
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To: BuckeyeTexan
So, what we can conclude is the government is so inept that it can even screw up a prisoner's economy. Have I got that about right?
23 posted on 06/25/2009 1:58:57 PM PDT by LTCJ (God Save the Constitution - Tar & Feathers, The New Look for Summer '09)
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To: TheCause; MAD-AS-HELL

24 posted on 06/25/2009 2:13:58 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Integrity, Character, Leadership, and Loyalty matter - Be an example, no matter the cost.)
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To: LTCJ
I didn't even know there was a prison economy, but if it exists, the government can screw it up.

We're from the government. We're here to help you.

25 posted on 06/25/2009 2:15:55 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Integrity, Character, Leadership, and Loyalty matter - Be an example, no matter the cost.)
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Good, since we will pay less for the crooks medical bills.


26 posted on 06/25/2009 2:20:24 PM PDT by SeminoleSoldier
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
"a contraband pack of 20 cigarettes - which would cost $6 or $7 outside prison walls - can fetch up to $125 on the inside."

By the time the Democrats get done taxing smokes, it's gonna cost $125 a pack on the OUTSIDE, soon.....

27 posted on 06/25/2009 2:21:27 PM PDT by traditional1 ("Don't gots to worry 'bout no mo'gage, don't gots to buy no gas...Obama gonna take care o' me!")
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To: umgud
I wasn’t in for more than a couple days before I figured out how to get cigarettes.

Um, I'm sure you did; but spare us the details. /kidding>

28 posted on 06/25/2009 4:17:14 PM PDT by BfloGuy (It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect . . .)
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To: BfloGuy
Um, I'm sure you did; but spare us the details. /kidding>

OK, here it is. I was a runaway at 13........... no reflection on the good home and great parents I left. I was living in a flop house in downtown L.A. One night I got caught in MacArthur Park in a fight with a fellow who claimed I had rolled him for his money. He was not a heterosexual and I was treated as if I'd committed a hate crime. I was pretty fisty, but I was never a thief, nor a homo.

29 posted on 06/25/2009 5:07:51 PM PDT by umgud (Look to gov't to solve your everday problems and they'll control your everday life.)
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To: umgud
“fisty”?

As in “likely to throw a fist”.

I like it!

30 posted on 06/25/2009 5:11:36 PM PDT by allmendream ("Wealth is EARNED not distributed, so how could it be redistributed?")
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To: MAD-AS-HELL

Does it have the same felon to guard ratio as a real prison, since its Michigan?


31 posted on 06/25/2009 5:13:20 PM PDT by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.)
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To: BuckeyeTexan

...Phil Spector?


32 posted on 06/25/2009 5:15:24 PM PDT by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: SpaceBar

That was a funny one as well but in the case of this article nothing topped the sound of Cartman trying to pass the smokes (then a board game, then Disneyland rides) he smuggled in certain *ahem* body cavities.


33 posted on 06/26/2009 4:48:17 AM PDT by chargers fan
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To: BuckeyeTexan; All

Interesting post and thread (with humor). BTTT.


34 posted on 06/26/2009 4:55:24 AM PDT by PGalt
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