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Area jails buck non-smoking trend

December 25, 2005|TODD KLEFFMAN

A recent survey shows that nearly a quarter of Kentucky's full-service jails have gone smoke free and several others have restricted smoking areas for inmates and guards. Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange is preparing to ban smoking in the spring.

The three area jails, however, are not part of that trend.

"It relieves a whole lot of tension for inmates to smoke," said Sgt. Ricky Gibson, a deputy jailer at the Boyle County Detention Center.

The Boyle facility had been smoke free until current Jailer Barry Harmon was elected about three years ago. Harmon instituted a policy that separates inmates into smoking and non-smoking cells, Gibson said. Visitors must smoke outside and guards have an indoor smoking lounge, but cannot smoke in any other indoor areas of the jail, he said.

At the Casey County Detention Center, inmates are allowed to smoke in the main jail, Deputy Jailer Steve Lee said. Inmates who request non-smoking are usually placed in a separate cell, he said.

Jailer William Gooch of the Lincoln County Regional Jail said that smoking hardly ever arises as an issue at his jail because the vast majority of inmates are smokers. Gooch estimated that about 95 percent of inmates and more than 50 percent of his deputies smoke.

"It's tremendously smoky in here," he said. "I've got guys in here that we give breathing treatments to and they still smoke. It's incredible."

Gooch said that only one or two inmates a year request a non-smoking environment and "I try to transfer them to another facility."

Banning smoking in the Lincoln jail, which is fashioned from a 1940s-era office building that has been remodeled several times, would create a dangerous situation because the facility is not very well equipped to lock down or restrict movements of inmates. And inmates would get very riled up if they couldn't smoke, he said.

"If you were to cut out smoking, it's very likely you'd have a mass riot on your hands," Gooch said. "They would be going through physical and psychological withdrawal and they'd all be united. They'd have a common grievance."

Gooch said he believes that, sooner or later, all jails will be forced to deal with the issue. A lawsuit from an inmate or jail employee complaining about second-hand smoke will led to regulations that at least restrict smoking, if not prohibit it, he speculated.

"It's one of the areas that's in a state of change. It's only a matter of time before we'll have to provide non-smoking facilities," Gooch said. "Kentucky will probably the be the last state the does it. I just hope they don't do it during the life span of this old jail."

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