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| Vt. Prison Smoking Ban Starts This Week |
| By WCAX |
| Published: 01/05/2004 |
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Vermont's prison inmates are preparing for a total smoking and tobacco ban scheduled to begin this week. About ninety percent of Vermont inmates smoke. Several complained bitterly in interviews with WCAX, claiming the ban is unfair. They were also angered when they learned that the tobacco ban may not apply to corrections officers. While the ban does not go into effect until this week, most inmates have already run out of cigarettes because they have not been permitted to obtain new tobacco products since December 11. The tobacco ban comes eleven years after Vermont unsuccessfully attempted a prison tobacco ban in 1992. Corrections officials say it failed because the price of contraband cigarettes skyrocketed causing increased crime problems inside the prisons. Inmates and corrections officers say contraband cigarettes are already hitting record high prices even though the new ban is not yet officially in effect, going for ten-dollars each , or bartered even-up for one marijuana "joint". The tobacco ban will not be in effect in at least one of the two Virginia prisons where more than 400 Vermont inmates have been transferred to ease chronic overcrowding, according to a corrections spokesman. |
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