Inmates in prisons across the state will be forced to quit smoking today when a new tobacco ban goes into effect.
At Olympic Corrections Center, a minimum-security work camp south of Forks, that means vegetable sticks will take the place of cigarettes and chewing tobacco inside facility walls.
And staff at the prison where about 350 inmates are confined know that people may be on edge with the change, said spokeswoman Sue Gibbs.
“Everybody’s aware that this is kind of tough, and that it is an addiction,” Gibbs said.
People probably want to keep puffing, she said, but “it’s just a fact of life — they’re not going to be able to.”
Olympic and Clallam Bay Corrections Center are among the state’s 12 prisons that will ban indoor smoking for more than 15,000 inmates in the state Department of Corrections system, plus correctional staff, administrators and prison hospital workers.
Four-year effort
Corrections officials say the ban has been in the works for the past four years and reflects a national trend in the prison system.
It’s estimated that about 50 percent of offenders in Washington’s prisons smoke.
While both cigarettes and chewing tobacco will be taboo for the offenders, staff are still allowed to use chewing tobacco and smoke outdoors — outside the perimeter of the facilities — during their breaks.
Smoking gazebos for staff have been constructed at Olympic and Clallam Bay.
Exceptions will be made for Native Americans and other inmates who smoke while participating in religious ceremonies.
