Smokers sentenced to federal prison need to quit or turn to the black market. Ariana Cubillos/AP

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is officially banning smoking and possession of tobacco in any form by prison inmates.

The prohibition takes effect 30 days after publication of a final regulatory rule Monday in the Federal Register. Prison guards still will be allowed to possess tobacco, but inmates will be permitted to smoke only for religious purposes.

“I’m a little surprised to be getting calls about this,” says Bureau of Prisons spokesman Ed Ross.

Tobacco use by inmates, he says, is already banned in practice due to a 2006 policy taking tobacco products off the shelves of prison commissaries.

Cigarettes became contraband when commissaries stopped selling them, despite regulations technically allowing for outdoor smoking.



“If an inmate is found to be in possession of tobacco they are subject to discipline,” possibly including loss of phone or visitation privileges, Ross says. “I think it’s just formalizing the policy that’s in place.”

The final rule, first reported Friday by the Washington Free Beacon, says the Bureau of Prisons’ previous ban on tobacco sales at commissaries was lawful and did not actually ban tobacco possession (even though acquisition became impossible).

“The removal of tobacco products from institution commissaries was not a prohibition of inmate possession of tobacco, ” the bureau said. The bureau said it took that action “when it became apparent that inmate smoking was decreasing.”

Prisoners are historically more likely to smoke than the general public. Before the 2006 policy change, an estimated 60 to 80 percent of prison and jail inmates were smokers - far higher than the national average - alarming public health advocates who noted poor ventilation at facilities exposed nonsmokers to significant amounts of secondhand smoke.



But there's a flip side to banning tobacco. The New York Daily News reported in 2013 tobacco prohibitions led to a surge in black market prices, with individual cigarettes selling for an average of $30 on New York City’s Rikers Island. The Daily Beast reported the restrictions created a “cash cow” for prison gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood.

The new rule applies only to the 212,438 inmates housed in federal facilities. Many state and local jails, however, have independently banned tobacco use.

In response to public comments, the Bureau of Prisons argued the new rule does not force inmates to seek medical treatment or infringe on the rights of people who practice Native American religions.

Ross says he doesn’t believe there was a surge of inmates claiming to adhere to obscure religious traditions after 2006, or that there now will be. To win approval for above-board tobacco use, he notes, inmates work through chaplain offices in a process similar to those in place for acquiring prayer beads or dietary items.

“It’s done ritually,” Ross says of legitimate tobacco use, and is "supervised by the chaplain’s office for the institution.”

