Prisons taking tobacco orders ahead of lawful using tobacco

JACKSON, Skip. (AP) — Officials at some Mississippi prisons say they are remaining inundated with orders for tobacco products as the state prepares to at the time yet again allow inmates to smoke.

Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain introduced in December that smoking would be lawful in Mississippi prisons beginning Feb. 1, a ten years after the observe was banned.

Cain, who turned commissioner past calendar year, said the adjust would lower the volume of contraband remaining smuggled into prisons.

“By selling the similar cigarettes that are allowed to totally free people today, we are breaking the contraband tobacco trade … minimizing inmate contraband violations and recouping for taxpayers some of the dollars it usually takes to operate condition prisons,” he stated in a statement.

Income from tobacco product sales will go to fund the Division of Corrections’ re-entry plan, which teaches parole-eligible men and gals the techniques essential for trade jobs. Tobacco solutions are to be offered at sector selling price.

Some public health and fitness groups, which include the American Most cancers Culture Cancer Action Network, are opposed to the transform.

In a assertion to WLBT-Tv, the organization’s officers explained they are “disappointed” in the final decision to legalize tobacco solutions by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. They identified as the ban a “lifesaving policy” and stated inmates have the appropriate to “breathe clean up, smoke-free of charge air.”

Cain said he is sympathetic to anti-smoking teams. Even so, he explained he thinks lifting the ban increases the quality of everyday living for non-smokers.

“The state’s using tobacco ban was meant to protect many others from 2nd-hand smoke but in prison, it backfired by forcing inmates to obtain and smoke covertly within,” Cain said.

Cain said beneath the new system, prisoners have a designated position outdoors to smoke. Using tobacco cessation products and solutions will be available for people who want to quit.