Using tobacco will shortly be authorized once again in Mississippi prisons

JACKSON, Miss out on. (WLBT) – Cigarette smoking will quickly be lawful once more in the state’s prisons.

Starting February 1, 2021, Mississippi prison inmates will be ready to smoke legally for the initial time in 10 decades.

Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain explained the modify will guard inmates who are already cigarette smoking, and corrections officers, who may well be smuggling tobacco merchandise into the prisons.

“Inmates who smoke are using tobacco in any case,” he stated in a release. “But they’re obtaining to smuggle tobacco in, which is unlawful, and it is even extra illegal since state regulation prohibits using tobacco in state structures.”

Cain said that the current problem “compromises our corrections officers and staff members and puts them at danger to both crack the legislation by making it possible for the using tobacco or to set by themselves in threat by enforcing the rule.

He went on to say that “by selling the very same cigarettes that are permitted to free persons, we are breaking the contraband tobacco trade … reducing inmate contraband violations and recouping for taxpayers some of the bucks it normally takes to run state prisons.”

Identify-brand name cigarettes will be marketed in jail canteens where by inmates acquire snacks and toiletries. Cigars and smokeless tobacco merchandise also will be manufactured accessible.

As a byproduct, inmates will save dollars by remaining in a position to get those people products lawfully.

“Inmates who smoke now are not only breaking legal guidelines and losing a prospect at early launch … Also they are having to pay as significantly as $500 a pound to do it,” claimed MDOC Deputy Commissioner Jay Mallet. “The people who smoke will help you save money, and the point out will make income.”

Revenues brought in from cigarette product sales will fund MDOC’s re-entry plan, which teaches parole-qualified adult males and females the techniques wanted for many trades. Profits also will fund remedial programs so inmates can get paid their substantial university diplomas and get started college or university work.

Copyright 2020 WLBT. All legal rights reserved.