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| California Prison Bans Inmate Smoking |
| By Los Angeles Times |
| Published: 07/03/2002 |
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In the convict lexicon, cigarettes have always been 'coin'--the behind-bars currency that can buy inmates everything from toothpaste to toilet paper. Now a pack of prison smokes seems destined to become something else: contraband. On Monday, the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo became the second state prison since May to order all inmates to kick their cigarette habits cold turkey. That means no smoking in cells, public buildings or even the exercise yard. Citing rising health-care costs, a national vilification of smokers and inmates' complaints about secondhand fumes, prison officials have joined a nationwide trend toward cigarette prohibitions. Seventeen states have snuffed out tobacco use in prisons. Another 31 states, including California, and the federal government have partial bans that include most public buildings on prison grounds. Similar bans have resulted in unrest and unforeseen complications at several prisons--including one in California where protesting prisoners refused to leave their cells. |
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