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| Kentucky prison bans tobacco; others may follow |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/08/2006 |
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LA GRANGE, KY - After 50 years as a smoker, Jess Hensley is dealing with the jittery nerves of a man who gave up tobacco cold turkey. Hensley was among more than 1,000 prisoners forced to give up all forms of tobacco when a ban on smoking and chewing went into effect at the Kentucky State Reformatory last week. "This is a cruel thing to do," said the 60-year-old convicted murderer serving a 50-year sentence. "They're trying to create a riot. They want a riot for one reason or another." Corrections officials in Kentucky, the nation's No. 1 producer of burley, acknowledge that inmates in one of the state's largest prison are fuming about the decision. However, Warden Larry Chandler said the aging and oftentimes sickly inmates at the reformatory, which houses most of the state's medically fragile prisoners, shouldn't be using tobacco and need to be shielded from the secondhand smoke of cigarettes, cigars and pipes. Although tobacco is a key part of the state's economy, Kentucky, like the rest of the nation, has seen a proliferation of smoking bans in offices, public buildings, restaurants, even bars. Prisons are the latest targets, and even some of Kentucky's staunchest opponents of tobacco bans like that idea. That includes state Rep. John Arnold of Sturgis, one of the state's most vocal opponents to smoking bans. The western Kentucky Democrat who has bitterly opposed anti-smoking initiatives in the General Assembly said he finds no fault with the prison's no-tobacco policy. He said he supports it as a tough-on-criminals initiative. Prisons in several states have implemented at least partial bans on smoking. The Kentucky State Reformatory bars even the 500 staffers from using tobacco, and several county jails across the state also have instituted such bans. Brad Rodu, a pathologist at the University of Louisville who researches tobacco risks, said an all-out ban on tobacco like the one at the state reformatory is unnecessary if it's being done for health reasons. "It's another example of an anti-tobacco control movement that is simply out of control," Rodu said. "They're just instituting bans without measuring the consequences." Rodu said the prison could have banned cigarettes but continued to allow smokeless tobacco, which, he said, has far less health risks. Smokeless tobacco, he said, would satisfy the cravings for nicotine in a way that patches or gum containing low doses of the substance do not. "In many studies, researchers have found that up to 60 to 80 percent of inmates smoke," Rodu said. "The anti-tobacco extremists would say that smoking and nicotine use are of no value, and they couldn't be more wrong. People smoke because nicotine does powerful things to our brains. It has powerful mood-modulating effects. It gives us a sense of well-being. People use it to help them through their daily lives." Inmate James Calbough said he quit before the ban took effect, opting for nicotine lozenges to ease his craving for tobacco. Most smokers in the prison didn't do that, he said, and now they are scrounging for contraband tobacco. Calbough said a single roll-your-own cigarette can fetch as much as $10 in the prison in the wake of the ban. Some inmates, he said, are desperate. "You can cut the tension with a knife," he said. Inmate James Holbrook also turned to nicotine lozenges, mint flavored, to help with the cravings. Now 42, Holbrook had smoked since he was 14 years old. "I'd much rather have a cigarette," he said. For the past decade, Kentucky inmates could smoke only outdoors. The reformatory is the first state prison to institute the prison-wide prohibition. It's not just a matter of personal health, Chandler said, but a matter of fiscal responsibility that could help to cut the $40 million a year the state pays for inmate medical care. |
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