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| Indoor smoking to be banned at all state prisons |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/28/2005 |
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Ohio's prisons are going smoke-free. Corrections Director Reginald Wilkinson said last Wednesday he has accepted a study committee's recommendation to ban indoor smoking at all state-run prisons. The indoor smoking prohibition should be in place within six months, said Teri Decker, the department's chief of labor relations. Wilkinson said the state has an obligation to create a healthy environment, and that includes exposure to secondhand smoke. "It's not just an issue for inmates. It's an issue for staff," he said. Decker said Wilkinson's decision stemmed from the work of the Smoking Cessation Committee, a 14-member panel assembled last year to review tobacco use by inmates and employees. Smoking currently is prohibited at the Corrections Medical Center in Columbus, the Ohio State Penitentiary near Youngstown and indoors at eight other correctional facilities. Each of the state's remaining prisons has been required for several years to maintain at least one tobacco-free housing area. Wilkinson previously had opposed efforts to curb smoking in prisons. In response to anti-smoking legislation introduced in the Legislature about 10 years ago, Wilkinson argued that restrictions would trigger inmate unrest, invite corruption and encourage the smuggling of tobacco products. "I still believe what I believed back then," Wilkinson said. But, he added, "My thinking can be modified with data." Wilkinson said he's aware that other prison systems have gone smoke-free without a significant backlash from inmates or employees. The panel determined that 24 states now have tobacco-free prisons and that most of the remaining states have partial bans, as does the federal system. Inmates haven't been informed of the new policy. An estimated 70 percent of the state's 43,000 inmates smoke. |
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