Published: February 11, 2006 10:39 pm         

Will smoking ban lead to uprisings in prisons?

CHARLESTON — Inmates and correctional officers must go cold turkey come July 1 at all West Virginia prisons, and one legislator is worried.

“I hope the worst scenario doesn’t happen in terms of a prison uprising, and in terms of morale and the ability to maintain guards and keep guards,” says Delegate Dave Perry, D-Fayette, whose 29th District is home to the state’s maximum-security prison.

Perry co-chairs a legislative interims committee overseeing regional jails and prisons, and says the move by the Division of Corrections to ban tobacco use could foment unrest behind prison walls.

For instance, he points out, 46 percent of the employees at Mount Olive Correctional Complex use some form of tobacco while holding a job where stress is a constant companion.

“And that 46 percent work 12-hour shifts,” Perry says.

“In my personal opinion, I think we ought to provide some safe harbors, or smoke zones.”

Existing policy forbids the use of any kind of tobacco product inside prisons, but officers and convicts may smoke or chew outdoors.

As of July 1, even the outdoors will be off limits.

“With the grounds and so forth, and the high stress of those workers, and the volatility of this situation, I just feel a more amicable solution needs to be worked out in terms of providing smoke zones, smoke areas outside,” Perry said.

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For more than a decade, smoke-free has been the law at the 10 regional jails in West Virginia.

Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein has been eyeing a smoking ban out of concerns over increased health care costs associated with those who indulge.

One national group says 38 states forbid smoking or have imposed policies limiting the use of tobacco.

Rubenstein cited a study showing West Virginia taxpayers would save $400,000 annually in medical costs and as much as $80,000 in dental costs linked to tobacco usage.

Sen. Shirley Love, also D-Fayette and a co-anchor of the legislative panel with Perry, doesn’t share the same concern about violence over sudden nicotine withdrawal.

“I don’t know that you would have a riot,” he said.

Love said he became concerned once Fayette County health authorities imposed a no-smoking ban countywide, including Mount Olive.

“Maybe they could do it on a gradual basis at the prison or provide areas outside to smoke,” he said.

“Personally, I think you should be very cautious. When you have that many people incarcerated, it has an explosive nature among those people.”

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Besides the pain of quitting a nicotine addiction outright, Perry says, an economic issue lurks on the side.

“There’s an economic issue impact in terms of cigarettes that they sell within the stores and the person that smokes pays a higher Public Employees Insurance Agency premium,” the delegate says.

In advance of the new policy, Perry’s committee discussed it with Rubenstein and with the board at Mount Olive.

Perry has no idea what percentage of inmates at Mount Olive use tobacco, but says he is convinced the prospects of trouble are real, not only there but at other institutions.

“I think even now the guards and those persons that run the facilities have been around long enough to understand the rumblings,” he says.

In recent months, he said, officers have been removing belts and hoods off sweatshirts, “based on some sense of what they feel.”

“I think they sense in preparing for a possible uprising relative to this issue,” he said.

Perry said he understands the DOC has embarked on tobacco cessation programs, entailing patches and over-the-counter lozenges that smokers employ to kick the habit.

But all that doesn’t satisfy both Perry and Love.

The two intend to write Rubenstein a letter asking him to consider a modified policy that would allow tobacco usage outdoors.

“Maybe they could gradually do it or continue to allow smoking on the outside,” Love added.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com