E-Cigarettes Popular in Jails, Among Wardens and Inmates

choi

Timothy Williams, In Rural Jails, a Calming Vapor; A lucrative source of income for many jails facing budget holes. New York Times, Jan 24, 2014.
www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/us/in-rural-jails-a-calming-vapor.html

Quote:

"Though traditional cigarettes are prohibited from most prisons and jails because of fire hazards and secondhand smoke, a growing number of sheriffs say they are selling e-cigarettes to inmates to help control the mood swings of those in need of a smoke, as well as address budget shortfalls, which in some jails have meant that guards are earning little more than fast-food workers. * * * [Jail guards in Macon county, Tennnessee] earn a top salary of $10.58 an hour — which after taxes typically amounts to less than the state’s $7.35 an hour minimum wage, the guards say. The jail buys each e-cigarette for $2.75 and sells it for $10. An e-cigarette at the jail — either a Marlboro-style flavor or a menthol version — is good for about 500 puffs, which is the equivalent of about three and a half packs of regular cigarettes, jail officials and inmates say. ['Some jails earn profits of more than 400 percent for each e-cigarette']  Mr Mark Gammons [county sheriff] said that depending on sales, he hoped to collect between $20,000 and $50,000 from e-cigarettes this budget year. 'I just want my boys to make as much as they can,' he said, even if it is only an additional $1 an hour.

"The trend stands in contrast to restrictions on e-cigarettes approved in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and other big cities. County jails in at least seven states have permitted the sale of a limited selection of flavors of e-cigarettes to inmates.

My comment:
(a) Lafeyette, Tennessee
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette,_Tennessee
(a city in, and seat of, Macon County, Tennesse)
(i) population: 4,474 (2010 census)
(ii) Macon Coutny Jail is located there.
(iii) Sam Roberts, New Option for the States on Inmates in the Census. New York Times, Jan 11, 2010.
www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/us/politics/11census.htm

first two paragraphs:

"For decades, predominantly rural and Republican districts have had extra clout in state and local legislative bodies because their large inmate populations were counted as local residents in apportioning representation. Now, the Census Bureau has agreed to give states a tool that could dilute the political power of those districts.

"In May 2011, in time for Congressional and legislative reapportionment, the bureau will identify exactly where group quarters like prisons are and how many people occupy them. States would then have the option of counting them in the local population or not.

(iv) apportion (vt):
"to divide and share out according to a plan; especially :  to make a proportionate division or distribution of"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apportion

(b) The incarcerated are captive audience. Jail canteens obviously lack comprtition, typical of a marketplace. I deem this gouging. Sheriff of Plymouth County, Massachusetts a decade ago petitioned state legislature to allow county jail to charge inmates fees for gousing and feeding them. Legislature said no. Overcharging in a jail canteen is simply a tax in another name. I can not understand why the report does not mentions whining inmates.