New York authorities are tightening restrictions on inmates' access to tobacco as the deadline approaches for a ban on smoking inside prisons.
A new regulation scaled back the amount of cigarettes, cigars, and loose tobacco allowed in packages sent to inmates from outside prisons.
The restriction is one of the last steps the state will take before banning indoor smoking by prisoners and staff starting Jan. 1.
'Right now inmates can smoke outside and in their housing units,' state prison spokesman James Flateau said. 'Effective the first of the year, they can smoke only outside. As a result of that, inmates won't have a need for as many smoking supplies. That is the reason for decreasing the amount they can have.'
The state Department of Correctional Services announced the smoking ban in July 1999 under a phased-in schedule that began last Jan. 1. Since July 1, inmates have been able to smoke only in assigned sleeping areas or outside.
After Jan. 1, 2001, inmates can smoke only in exercise yards and other outside areas of state prisons. The ban does not include smokeless tobacco.
Glenn Goord, the state prison commissioner, said smoking will be banned for several reasons: to comply with federal court decrees and state laws that restrict smoking indoors, to reduce tensions between smoking and non-smoking inmates, to reduce the risk of fires, and to improve the health of staff and inmates.
The smoking rules apply to all 71,000 state prison inmates and 30,000 staffers.
Flateau said prisoners generally accept the idea that an indoor smoking ban is a step whose 'time has come.'
Robert Gangi, head of the state Correctional Association prisoner advocacy group, said prison officials have acted properly by giving inmates nearly 18 months' warning.
'They have offered help to inmates who are smokers to break the habit and have given people plenty of lead time to get ready for it,' Gangi said. 'We have heard no complaints from prisoners about it. That does not mean, however, that there aren't pockets of real resistance to it and resentment toward it.'
Courts have mandated that all prisoners get at least one hour of exercise time outside every day. For inmates in disciplinary housing units, that will be their only time to smoke after Jan. 1.
Inmates in general prison populations typically have access to outside areas for many more hours each day if they choose, Flateau said.
Under the latest tobacco restrictions, inmates can receive packages each month with up to three cartons of cigarettes (down from four cartons); 50 cigars (down from 100), and 24 ounces of loose tobacco (down from 36 ounces).
Cigarettes and stop-smoking devices such as nicotine patches will continue to be sold in prison commissaries after Jan. 1, Flateau said.