Tobacco black market is smoking hot in Ca prisons February 19, 2007 11:42 AM
[PrisonMovement] Tobacco black market is smoking hot in California prisons
Tobacco black market is smoking hot in California prisons
By: Associated Press -
LANCASTER -- There's no if, and or butt about it:
California's ban on tobacco in prisons has produced a burgeoning black market behind bars, where a pack of smokes can fetch up to $125.
Prison officials who already have their hands full keeping drugs and weapons away from inmates now are spending time tracking down tobacco smugglers, some of them guards and other prison employees. Fights over tobacco have broken out -- at one Northern California prison guards had to use pepper spray to break up a brawl among 30 inmates.
The ban was put in place in July 2005 to improve work conditions and cut rising health care costs among inmates but it also has led to an explosive growth of tobacco trafficking. The combination of potentially big profits and relatively light penalties are driving the surge.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Lt. Kenny Calhoun of the Sierra Conservation Center in Northern California, where officials report cigarette prices of $125 a pack.
Last year, a corrections officer was put on leave from California State Prison, Solano, for smuggling tobacco. The guard made several hundred dollars a week through tobacco, officials say.
At Folsom State Prison, a cook quit last year after he was caught walking onto prison grounds with several plastic bags filled with rolling tobacco in his jacket. He told authorities he was earning more smuggling tobacco -- upwards of $1,000 a week -- than he did in his day job.
Another Folsom cook made about $300 for each tin of rolling tobacco she brought into the prison, receiving payment through money orders sent by an inmate's relatives. She resigned after being caught in October.
"There's quite a bit of money to be made," said Lt. Tim Wamble, a Solano prison spokesman. "In a department this size you're gonna have people who will succumb to the temptation."
Unlike illegal drugs, which bring harsh penalties when smuggled into prison, punishments for inmates caught with tobacco usually range from just a written warning to extra work duties, no matter the quanity.
entire article @
http://tinyurl.com/2aucyb
