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Inmates face cold turkey reality

Published 12:08am Thursday, July 5, 2012

NATCHEZ — When the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility went smoke-free Sunday, the inmates joined a reality that other area prisoners have faced for years.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections had in place an order that mandated all MDOC prisons be smoke-free. The order includes all MDOC buildings and grounds.

But Natchez Police Capt. Tom McGehee said the Natchez Police Department’s jail — which is not an MDOC facility — had a smoking ban 15 years before the implementation of the new policy. The NPD jail has been smoke-free since the police department occupied its current building on D’Evereux Drive.

“We have never smoked in this building,” McGehee said. “Once (inmates) come in the back door, that is it for smoking until they leave the building.”

The only inmates who have an opportunity to smoke are trusties, McGehee said, and they are not allowed to do it in the jail area.

The Adams County Jail, operated by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, has likewise been smoke-free since July 2006, when a law banning smoking in government buildings went into effect. The jail is located in the same building as the sheriff’s administrative and patrol offices.

Wilkinson County Correctional Facility Spokeswoman Angela Smith said the prison let inmates and staff know ahead of time in both verbal and written communication about the new policy, and hosted on-site education sessions by MDOC officials for the inmates.

Employees were also notified that the health insurance program provided by Corrections Corporation of America — the parent company that operates WCCF — covers smoking cessation programs, Smith said, and smoking cessation resources were provided for both staff and inmates.

“We will continue to work closely with our government partner in the upcoming months to ensure a safe, smooth transition to this new policy,” Smith said.

But inmates booked into the Natchez Police jail won’t have the benefit of smoking cessation programs and products, McGehee said.

“You had the opportunity to quit smoking before you came in here, and now we are going to help you quit (cold turkey),” he said.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/everette.roberts Everette Roberts

    blah, blah, blah ………who cares?

  • Anonymous

    What a pity.

  • Anonymous

    Good!!! I’m glad they cut off the cigs. I wonder though, why hasn’t one of the jailhouse lawyers tried to play the system through the ACLU. Seems that liberal bunch would jump at a chance to screw up a good thing. If they got into it and won, the taxpayer probably would have to pay for the thugs smokes.

  • Anonymous

    Everybody get used to Government telling us what to do, what to eat, how to think, what you learn in school, ect. Thank you Obama.

  • Anonymous

    Why should the thugs be able to smoke in jail ? Law abiding citizens can’t smoke in many public places.

  • Anonymous

    Almost as bad as Republicans wanting to decree what we can and can’t do in our bedrooms, what a woman can do with her reproductive system, and what distorted historical narrative of a “Christian nation” will be taught in our schools.

  • Anonymous

    Golly gee whiz, that’s right up there with Democrats that want to deny our free speech by claiming it is “hate” speech or “code words” for racism. :)

  • Anonymous

     Your comment is spot on, thank you!  Why those forms of government control are looked over conveniently, is beyond me…

  • CatTiger

    Like our nation would be a better place teaching our children it’s proper, right and NORMAL for men to poke other men in the butt, to abort or kill a fetus at any stage of development and completely destroy what our nation was FOUNDED on because you don’t like christianity?

  • Anonymous

    Where did I say I did not like Christianity? I simply said that the attempt by the far right to portray our nation’s political (Constitutional) beginning as grounded in Christian doctrine is false. Nowhere in the Constitution are there any articles or clauses establishing the United States as a Christian nation. In fact, the language is exclusionary of religion. Don’t you think the founders were gifted enough philosophers and legalists that if they had truly intended for America to be a Christian republic, they would have included language to that effect in the instrument upon which our entire system of law rests?

    Regardless of your feelings on abortion or homosexuality, neither is unconstitutional. If your pro-life convictions are truly that unshakeable, put your money where your mouth is and adopt one or more children who are very likely to be non-Anglo, or born drug-addicted, or psychologically traumatized from abuse, or any combination of these conditions. There are already plenty to choose from, and there will be many, many more if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Are you prepared to pay more even taxes to support these children as wards of the state? I didn’t think so. 

  • CatTiger

    you compose words very well… doesn’t change a thing, your short initial statement says it all. Have a great day!

  • Anonymous

    I know facts are sometimes inconvenient things that contradict closely held personal beliefs. I’ll say no more. Hope you have an enjoyable Sunday.

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