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No More Smoking in Florida Prisons

Oct. 03, 2011 | WMFE - All Florida's prisons are now tobacco-free. The new Department of Corrections no-smoking policy was announced in March and went into effect on October 1. Department officials say the move will save state taxpayers millions in medical costs.

 
The poicy was announced in March and inmates were given six months to kick the habit before all tobacco products were banned.
DOC spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger says the move will save the taxpayers a lot of money.
“Last calendar year, we spent almost $9 million dollars on hospital bills for inmates with smoking-related illnesses.” Plessinger said.
Plessinger said that safety was also a concern as inmates have been known to use lighters  to melt plastic and make weapons.
When the department announced the new policy, some skeptics predicted an angry uprising of tobacco-addicted inmates but, so far, there have been no such problems.
The inmates were not required to quit “cold turkey.” As soon as the ban was announced, prisoners were allowed to buy nicotine patches from the commissary and take smoking cessation classes to help them kick the habit.
Corrections officials say the move will save the state money in the long term but will cost  prison canteen concessions approximately $19 million dollars that Florida inmates had spent annually on tobacco products. 
But Plessinger said the inmates may just be trading one habit for another.
“What we've seen in other states is that when inmates stop smoking, they buy candy instead.”
The ban was ordered by former Corrections Secretary Edwin Buss, who banned tobacco as corrections chief in Indiana in the mid-1990s. 


 

 

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