Smoking will be legal in Mississippi state prisons beginning in February

JACKSON, Miss. — For the first time in more than a decade, inmates in Mississippi’s state prisons will be allowed to take a puff or enjoy a dip. Legally, of course.

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Beginning Feb. 1, 2021, inmates will be allowed to smoke cigarettes, cigars and use smokeless tobacco products, WLBT reported.

Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said in a news release that the rule change will protect inmates who are already smoking, and will remove the temptation by corrections officials to smuggle the products to inmates, the television station reported.

“Inmates who smoke are smoking anyway,” Cain stated in the release. “But they’re having to smuggle in tobacco to do it, which is illegal, and it’s even more illegal because state law prohibits smoking in state buildings. That compromises our Corrections officers and staff and puts them at risk to either break the law by allowing the smoking or to put themselves in danger by enforcing the rule. By selling the same cigarettes that are allowed to free people, we are breaking the contraband tobacco trade, designating smoking areas outside, clearing the air inside for the majority of inmates who don’t smoke, reducing inmate contraband violations, and recouping for taxpayers some of the dollars it takes to run prisons.”

Cain said the name brand cigarettes, cigars and smokeless products will be sold at current prices in the prisons’ canteens, where inmates buy snacks and toiletries, according to the release.

Profits from prison tobacco sales will fund the department of corrections’ Re-Entry Program by purchasing simulators and computer programs to teach parole-eligible inmates skills. It also will fund remedial courses so inmates can earn a high school diploma and take college courses.

“Inmates who smoke now not only are breaking laws and losing a chance at early release,” MDOC Deputy Commissioner Jay Mallett said in the release. “But also they are paying as much as $500 a pound to do it. The smokers will save money and the state will make money.”

Cox Media Group