Utah prison officials plan to ban smoking completely at the state's prison facilities in March, a move that's only been attempted one other time in U.S. prisons.
That ban occurred last year in Vermont, and after five months, officials were forced to ease restrictions because of dangerous side effects.Vermont corrections officials reported problems, including a thriving black market that pushed the price of cigarettes to $40 a pack, trading of prescription drugs and sexual favors for tobacco and increased violence among inmates.
One Vermont inmate reported that desperate prisoners resorted to smoking coffee and Tang. Despite Vermont's failure, Utah prison officials plan to ban smoking at all prison facilities by March 1.
Prisoners found with any tobacco product in their possession will face disciplinary action and fines to be determined at a hearing, according to corrections spokesman Jack Ford. Tobacco products will be treated as contraband and confiscated just like money and weapons.Ford said officials don't have much choice in the matter, as a clean-air law passed last year forces state-owned buildings to be smoke-free. For the past year, employees and inmates have been forced to smoke outside.
"It doesn't work that well (to force smokers outside)," Ford said. "The problem is that if you allow inmates to have cigarettes, if you sell them . . . they somehow get them inside."
Ford admits corrections officials have been lenient with law breakers.
"And to be frank, we've been a little lax in enforcing it, especially in Uintah, where some inmates are locked down 23 hours a day," Ford added. Officials will try to warn prisoners before fining them and will be understanding of the struggle many inmates will have with the new rule.
Corrections officials anticipate some problems from the ban but hope programs set up to aid inmates in quitting will alleviate some of those problems.
"We're not beefing up security or anything," Ford said. "And we certainly hope we don't have any problems, but even normal people have a hard time quitting, and we're trying to be understanding of that."
The prison's commissary will stop selling tobacco products Feb. 1. Ford said there won't be limit on how much inmates buy, but cigarettes will be confiscated starting March 1.
Utah has fewer smokers in its prisons than does Vermont. Vermont estimated 80 percent of its inmates smoked, while Ford estimates 40 percent of Utah's inmates smoke.
Inmates aren't the only ones affected by the ban. Corrections employees will still be allowed to smoke outside but are forbidden from smoking in the "presence or proximity" of inmates.
Deseret News staff writer Steve Fidel contributed to this story.