Research Note: Smoking in Prisons—A National Survey of Correctional Administrators in the United States

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Abstract
This article presents a national survey that assesses the policies of correctional institutions regarding staff and inmate exposure to secondary tobacco smoke. Correctional administrators from the 50 states were queried about smoking problems in prisons, focusing on disputes among inmates, among staff, and between staff and inmates. The respondents identified nonsmoking areas in their facilities and listed the various administrative responses used to alleviate the problem. The article compares the opinions of administrators on the impact of a policy that restricts or bans smoking with case studies of institutions that have already banned smoking, and concludes that more research is needed to determine the relative pros and cons of restricting or banning smoking in prisons.