Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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| Camp 28 affected |
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
By BULLETIN AND AP REPORTS -
Prisons and other state correctional facilities across Virginia plan to ban tobacco use by February 2010.
Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said smoking is banned or there are designated smoking areas for staff at eight prisons so far, according to The Associated Press.
Patrick Henry Correctional Unit No. 28 in Horsepasture is not one of them, Traylor said last week. Tobacco use is permitted there, he said, but only until Feb. 1.
Then, the tobacco ban “affects everyone, with no exceptions,” Traylor said.
Barry Kanode, superintendent at Camp 28, said “there are a significant number of smokers” among inmates, but “we really don’t track the number of smokers or nonsmokers.”
Because the ban will be department-wide, Kanode said Camp 28 will comply and be tobacco-free Feb. 1.
Deputy Secretary of Public Safety Marilyn P. Harris said there have been no problems resulting from the ban so far.
Traylor said corrections officials saw “the handwriting on the wall” when considering the ban.
Prison systems in other states have gone tobacco-free, and Virginia lawmakers this year passed historic curbs on smoking in restaurants and bars, according to the AP.
Martinsville Sheriff Steve Draper said he is surprised that smoking has been permitted in state facilities for so long, considering it has not been permitted at two of the three city facilities for years.
Smoking among inmates in the oldest building, a brick facility at 68 Church St., has been barred since around 1995, Draper said.
Inmates housed in an adjacent metal facility have been unable to smoke since that facility was built in 1996-97, Draper said.
But smoking is permitted outside of the City Jail Annex (City Farm) on Clearview Drive because it is an incentive for inmates to want to work, Draper said.
There are no plans to ban smoking at that facility, he added.
Henry County Sheriff’s Maj. Steve Eanes said smoking is not permitted in the county jail.
Staff members who smoke must go outside to light up, Eanes said. |
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