NEWS

July 31, 2008
Fort Dodge prison cuts out smoking

Inmates at the Fort Dodge state prison will have their cigarette supply permanently cut off Friday, and they won't be doing any more puffing after Nov. 1st.

Warden Cornell Smith has declared he is fed up with convicts breaking rules by smoking in their cells, hot-wiring electrical outlets to light cigarettes and tossing tobacco butts outside their units. So he's accelerating the state's plans to convert the prison into a tobacco-free facility.
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"I realize this will be a difficult habit to stop, but we will get through it," Smith said in a memo last week to the Fort Dodge prison's 1,100 inmates.

The Iowa Department of Corrections said in May that all of Iowa's prisons will become tobacco-free in January. State legislators had exempted prisons from a law that went into effect July 1 that bans smoking in most public places. But prison officials said they are concerned about rising health care costs and believe banning smoking will help reduce those bills.

Under Smith's plan, offenders won't be allowed to order any more tobacco products from the prison commissary, effective Friday. As of Nov. 1, all tobacco will be considered contraband and subject to disciplinary action. Smoking cessation classes will be offered starting in August.

Smith previously wrote to inmates on Feb. 7, warning them to quit smoking in their cells and citing other tobacco-related problems.

"There was no decrease of violations, and this type of behavior is unsafe here at the institution," Smith said in last week's memo.

Prison spokesman Fred Scaletta said Wednesday there are no plans to accelerate the smoking ban at other state prisons.

Correctional facilities at Clarinda, Oakdale and Mount Pleasant are already tobacco-free, but smoking is still allowed at prisons in Fort Madison, Mitchellville, Rockwell City, Anamosa and Newton.

Jeff Draper, 54, a Fort Dodge inmate serving time for drug convictions, said he objects to the tobacco ban.

"It isn't about smoking. The issue is about personal liberty and the rights guaranteed to our citizens by our Bill of Rights," Draper said.

Scaletta said correctional officials can administratively prohibit inmates from smoking. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, with more than 200,000 inmates, has been smoke-free since 2004, a federal spokesman said.

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