Smoking cigarettes will before long be lawful once more in Mississippi prisons

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Using tobacco will quickly be authorized all over again in the state’s prisons.

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Commencing February 1, 2021, Mississippi prison inmates will be capable to smoke lawfully for the to start with time in 10 yrs.

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Mississippi Section of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain explained the alter will safeguard inmates who are by now smoking, and corrections officers, who may well be smuggling tobacco solutions into the prisons.

“Inmates who smoke are cigarette smoking in any case,” he explained in a launch. “But they’re getting to smuggle tobacco in, which is unlawful, and it is even far more unlawful because state regulation prohibits smoking in condition structures.”

Cain stated that the latest circumstance “compromises our corrections officers and workers and puts them at threat to both crack the regulation by letting the cigarette smoking or to set on their own in hazard by implementing the rule.

He went on to say that “by providing the identical cigarettes that are authorized to totally free people, we are breaking the contraband tobacco trade … lowering inmate contraband violations and recouping for taxpayers some of the bucks it requires to operate point out prisons.”

Identify-manufacturer cigarettes will be offered in prison canteens where by inmates buy treats and toiletries. Cigars and smokeless tobacco merchandise also will be built accessible.

As a byproduct, inmates will help you save dollars by being equipped to invest in all those items legally.

“Inmates who smoke now are not only breaking regulations and losing a chance at early release … Also they are having to pay as much as $500 a pound to do it,” mentioned MDOC Deputy Commissioner Jay Mallet. “The smokers will preserve income, and the state will make cash.”

Revenues brought in from cigarette income will fund MDOC’s re-entry software, which teaches parole-eligible gentlemen and women the expertise desired for several trades. Gross sales also will fund remedial programs so inmates can receive their superior college diplomas and get started faculty get the job done.

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