Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwaway0a5e 2053 days ago
>And the fact that smoking remains legal indoors in prisons.

This is like saying "OMG, <thing that is regulated by the states> isn't illegal in the US". Prisons are run by the states. Jails are usually run by the counties. Banning tobacco across the board for prisoners and staff is common because it becomes one less potential avenue of illicit trade between the guards and prisoners. Just because there isn't a law against doesn't mean it's not usually prohibited in practice.

1 comments

No need to overreact. My point was that prisons are often exempt from local legislation regarding smoking in indoor public places, in the US and elsewhere [1]. I find this to be strange - it seems to punish prisoners who don't smoke over and above their sentence, and staff.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban#Effects_of_prison_...