cannabisnews.com: Colorado's Prison Tobacco Ban!





Colorado's Prison Tobacco Ban!
Posted by FoM on April 07, 1999 at 09:42:15 PT
Source: SF Gate
CANON CITY, Colo. In the month since smoking was banned in Colorado's state prisons, three workers have been fired, several inmates have been sickened on tobacco substitutes and appetites are raging. 
At one facility, several inmates stockpiled tobacco, but ran out of rolling papers. They tried making cigarettes using wrapping paper from toilet-paper shipments. ``Apparently the paper has some toxic stuff in it,'' Nard Claar told today's editions of The Denver Post. ``They got really, really dizzy and nauseous. One guy, they had to give oxygen to.'' One inmate was found smoking a nicotine patch. ``I think he got sick,'' Corrections Department Director John Suthers said. Three prison workers lost their jobs after smuggling tobacco to inmates, who now pay $5 for each cigarette on the prison black market, officials said. Before the ban, one of every three inmates smoked. However, corrections officials said overall they're pleased with the tobacco ban, which started March 1 and covers 14,000 inmates at all 24 state prisons. ``We've got people here saying, `Who cares about getting heroin or marijuana? We want a cigarette!''' said Nard Claar, associate warden of the Fremont Correctional Facility in Canon City, where half of the 1,200 inmates were smokers. To help kick the habit at the Fremont facility, prison officials spent $1,500 on 17,000 pieces of hard candy. Officials also increased orders for carrot and celery sticks, distributing 20 pounds a day for three weeks. Beyond the disciplinary actions, corrections officials told The Post that the tobacco ban has yielded one surprising changes in prison culture. ``We had a lot of people who used to skip meals. Now we've got a 15 percent increase in the serving of meals,'' said Tom Mallary, who directs food services at Fremont. They're eating all their lima beans.'' Is tobacco banning in prisons helpful?
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Comment #1 posted by bdwingnutt on September 03, 2000 at 22:28:48 PT
smoking in prisons,co.
the ban on smoking was soon followed by a ban on nearly all pornagraphic material. i know, i was sentenced to the prisons in colorado just as the tobacco ban was placed.you can't imagine the stress caused when someone can't "do their thin" and then at least smoke a cigarette without catching yet another case. the toilet paper wrappers did cause illnesses in my facilities and the gangs were making money off the illegality of it. funny thing is that the newly frustrated, healthier inmates made more successful prison breaks.on a sad note. one inmate, who by coincedence was one of the the longest living convicts in incarceration, had only cigarettes to live for.he simply sat in his cell waiting to die. this was about the time witherspoon,the singularly longest lived convict,passed away himself.you put a man in a box with no hope of any life, at least let him shorten his life or at least enjoy it. no one likes a pissy old man in prison.
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