JAILHOUSE CIGARETTES SOAR TO $30 A PACK AS BAN LOOMS

Booming Black Market Another Sign That Ban Will Cause Trouble, Corrections
Critics Say

The black market for cigarettes in Toronto-area jails is heating up as the
province tightens its ban on smoking in its facilities.

A single package of cigarettes is costing inmates as much as $30 in the
eight jails affected by the ban, which will have smoking phased out
entirely by September.

One inmate at the Mimico Correctional Centre, located west of Toronto, told
the Citizen he was lucky to get three packs of cigarettes for $60 -- a
bargain that's getting harder to find by the day.

"Prices are always going up," said Barbara Hill, director of policy
development at the John Howard Society of Ontario, a social services group
for inmates. "I wouldn't have a clue what the prices could rise to. It gets
worse and worse."

The province currently allows inmates to buy two packages of cigarettes a
week, at the regular price. But starting tomorrow, it will be down to one
package. And in September, the facilities will be smoke-free.

"It's one of the things that's creating hostile, tense environments in
prisons," Ms. Hill said. "And what happens in hostile, tense environments
could be dangerous."

She said it's one more thing that adds to inmate stress, which is already
stretched beyond its limits by overcrowding.

The province currently allows inmates to buy two packages of cigarettes a
week, at the regular price. But starting tomorrow, it will be down to one
package. And in September, the facilities will be smoke-free.

"It's one of the things that's creating hostile, tense environments in
prisons," Ms. Hill said. "And what happens in hostile, tense environments
could be dangerous."

Ms. Hill said the higher prices get for black market cigarettes, the more
dangerous the jails will become. Higher prices can mean higher debts, she
said, and if inmates can't pay their debts it often leads to violence.

Correction officials have already expressed concern the ban will lead to
violence and other disturbances in the jails, which currently house about
3,100 inmates.

Ms. Hill said the government is trying to make life as miserable as
possible for inmates in order to deter people from offending. But
deterrence doesn't work, according to research, she said.

"The purpose of the move toward smoke-free jails is to improve the quality
of the air for the health benefits of the inmates and staff," said Ross
Virgo, a spokesman for the Ministry of Correctional Services.

Mr. Virgo did not deny the province has an agenda to make life harder for
inmates, but emphasized the ban is a response to a "health issue."

Ms. Hill said she agrees with the need to protect staff and inmates from
second-hand smoke, but feels there are better ways to do so without an
all-out ban, suggesting designated smoking areas.

Earlier this year, 60 inmates at the Metro West Detention Centre in
Mississauga went on a hunger strike to protest the smoking ban. A riot
broke out last year at the Whitby Jail, one of the four detention centres
in Ontario that are already completely smoke-free. Although ministry
officials denied it was caused by the ban, some inmates demanded cigarettes
during negotiations with police and got their wish.

The province is planning to phase out smoking in all of its jails by the
end of 2001.