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| Maryland prisons brace today for ban on smoking |
| By Baltimore Sun |
| Published: 07/03/2001 |
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A ban on cigarette smoking goes into effect today at Maryland's 25 state prisons, and some correctional officers and inmates are worried about potential violence from the more than 11,000 inmates who smoke and are being forced to quit. The state police and National Guard, which are on call for prison emergencies, have been alerted to the ban and the possibility of trouble. 'My concern is that they're being pushed all at once,' said M. Kim Howard, president of the Maryland Correctional Law Enforcement Union. 'The change itself is devastating for an inmate.' 'I think it's going to be bad,' she said. 'Cigarettes are addictive. The treatment should be just like it is with any addictive substance.' But William W. Sondervan, commissioner of correction for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said he doesn't expect that the extra enforcement will be needed. 'I think it's going to be a regular day,' he said. 'If there are problems, I think they'll be isolated. 'The inmates have known this day was coming for a long time,' Sondervan said. 'We're not talking about something radical. We're just catching up with the rest of the country.' More than half of the state prison systems in the nation outlaw smoking on prison grounds, according to the American Correctional Association. All of Maryland's county detention centers prohibit smoking and also require inmates to wear uniforms. However, the state's 23,000 prison inmates wear their own clothing, and officials estimate that half of the inmate population smokes. Smoking had been allowed only in designated areas outside prison housing units. But, Sondervan said, 'It was extremely hard to enforce. If they're allowed to have cigarettes, they smoke them.' Although corrections officials had planned to require state prison inmates to wear uniforms beginning late this summer, they said that new policy has been delayed indefinitely. 'We're putting off everything until we're sure the smoking ban has been implemented smoothly,' Sondervan said. The ban also prohibits the state's 8,000 correctional officers from smoking on prison property. Some correctional officers and inmates have expressed concern about imposing the smoking ban just as the summer heat has begun to fray nerves. However, officials said warm weather is desirable because inmates have more time for recreation, which they said should defuse some of the tension. |
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