Published: June 16, 2008 10:23 pm      

Smoking ban has its problems in W.Va. prisons

Inmates at two West Virginia prisons say the smoking ban imposed March 1 as a means of lowering health costs associated with nicotine abuse has triggered a black market to peddle cigarettes at exorbitant prices to convicts.

Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein acknowledged Monday that some staff have been reprimanded for allowing contraband into prisons, but wouldn’t say if the infractions directly entailed tobacco.

“Could be,” he said. “Certainly, we realized that with this tobacco ban, sort of what was going to jump to the top of the list as far as a contraband item is tobacco.”

An inmate at Huttonsville Correctional Center told The Register-Herald that a 6-ounce bag of tobacco once sold for $6.

“Now, it will cost you $5 or more for a black market cigarette that is only as big as a pencil lead,” the inmate said in a letter. “I know, because I have bought my share. The profit on the 6-ounce bag of tobacco is beyond belief. You can hand roll approximately 600 cigarettes out of a 6-ounce bag of tobacco, giving you a profit of $3,000.”

Several lawsuits were filed by inmates in an effort to reverse the policy, but all such challenges were rejected by the West Virginia Supreme Court and circuit courts, Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein wouldn’t confirm whether tobacco has turned up in cells or in prison yards, but didn’t discount the prospect of a black market preying on the nicotine-addicted.

“I’m sure that you know as in the past with contraband items, certainly if those things are being sold, they’re at the prices that would boggle yours and my mind what we would pay for in a convenience store, a Wal-Mart, or whatever,” the commissioner said.

“One of the things we have also talked about and realize is we’ve had staff who had been reprimanded or who had lost their jobs over other contraband items over the years. Sadly, again, that’s the nature of this business.”

Rubenstein said he hasn’t checked in with all the wardens or investigators at every penal institution, but is looking into reports that tobacco was behind some disciplinary measures taken against staff.

Another inmate told this newspaper that convicts are getting $50 and $100 bills smuggled into Mount Olive Correctional Complex so inmates can buy cigarettes from staff members.

As for inmates hawking contraband cigarettes inside the prison walls, Rubenstein said, “It wouldn’t surprise me if they did.

“Through our intelligence, we’re always monitoring,” the commissioner said.

“Sadly, tobacco has jumped to the top of the list. But there’s always contraband items that are not allowed within the facilities. There have been attempts to introduce them since the beginning of time with corrections. Tobacco happens to be it now. So, we’ve been tracking intelligence as far as introduction of contraband and that’s to include tobacco products into our facilities.”

Rubenstein suggested that inmates sneaking a few puffs likely would attempt this while outside in the prison yard, such as the spacious one at Mount Olive.

“I’m sure they look at this very carefully and are willing to take that risk,” he said.

Not only are inmates throwing caution to the wind, but if some of their letters are correct, so are some folks paying them visits.

Visitors are scanned and given a pat-down as prisons routinely have done in the past, and Rubenstein said they are warned that introduction of any contraband can cancel their rights to see inmates.

“We don’t violate anybody’s rights,” he said. “But we certainly follow up leads on intelligence. Any time we get a lead on maybe who’s introducing into a facility, how they’re doing that, we follow up on those kinds of things. That’s just been the nature of our business for a long, long time.”

All in all, Rubenstein said he feels the smoking ban imposed on inmates is working.

“If I really looked at it from the standpoint of really the brief period of time we’ve been into this, we’re pretty much where we expected to be,” he said. “I feel like it’s going OK.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com