Tobacco is contraband in Laconia Prison, but where there's smokers, there's tobacco

There are many rights lost when incarcerated, and since 1999, state inmates have lost the right to use tobacco products. They are prohibited from possessing or using tobacco products of any kind.

"That doesn't mean they don't get them," said Jeffrey Lyons, public information officer for the NH Department of Corrections.

On Thursday, the Lakes Region Facility of the Department of Corrections hosted a day-long program centered on tobacco use. Sponsored by Breathe NH and the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, the event featured a holistic approach to tobacco prevention. The event was timed to coincide with the Great American Smoke-Out, when anti-smoking groups seek to draw attention to the dangers of tobacco.

The day included breakout sessions that included general education items about tobacco, addiction and second-hand smoke, as well as issues specific to inmates, such as boredom and stress of incarceration, that make tobacco a hard habit to kick in prison. Students from Prospect Mountain High School's CoRe and COOL group were joined by members from Dover High School's Youth to Youth group, and they gave inmates a presentation of the mistruths perpetrated by tobacco company marketing.

"It's our number one contraband in our facility," said Lakes Region Facility Warden Jane Coplan. The Lakes Region prison is a minimum-security transitional facility where inmates prepare to enter either a halfway house or enter a community on parole or with electronic monitoring.

The facility is off Parade Road in Laconia, and is surrounded by woods. Coplan said friends and family members of inmates make "tobacco drops" in the woods for inmates to find. If it works out, then inmates get something to smoke or chew. Often, correctional officers find it first, though.

Sgt. Rick Hardy, nicknamed "Hound dog," said he'll find a tobacco drop once or twice per week. And it isn't often a pack of cigarettes here and there — he often finds large bags of tobacco, sometimes a gallon or more.

"A high percentage are smoking," Copan said of the inmates. She said they also are motivated to acquire tobacco because it is a commodity among the other inmates. "Tobacco in prison is big money."

However, the stakes are just as big. If an inmate is caught with tobacco, he could spend more time in prison because of it. And if the suppliers are caught bringing the contraband in, they could be prosecuted for a felony. They also would be banned from ever visiting any of the state's correctional facilities again.

Judy Nicholson, of the state's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, her group has been providing support for the Lakes Region Facility for about a year, mostly supplying educational materials. Her group has also started surveying inmates, and found that most of the incarcerated smokers started the habit before they were 13 years old, and usually had at least one parent who smoked.

Marie Mulroy, of Breathe NH, a not-for-profit group, said another commonality among the smoking inmates was that they left school at an early age before the curricula covered tobacco. "A lot of this was brand-new information to them."

Correctional inmates tend to possess attributes that increase their likelihood to smoke, said Mulroy and Nicholson. They are likely to come from a low-income home, have little formal education, might have co-existing addictions or mental health issues, and are likely to be impulsive in their behaviors. For that reason, they've found that tackling smoking in inmates requires a more holistic approach. As Mulroy said, she hopes they will learn to understand "why they do what they do."

Inmates Edwin Landry and Guenter Roy found that being in prison gave them the opportunity to quit smoking. "There's a lot of consequences if you smoke here," said Landry. He had tried to quit several times, but it wasn't until his experience in prison, when he was able to change his way of thinking, that he was successful. "I used to be a negative person, I changed to a positive person... Everything is in your brain. This could be a prison, or this could be a learning experience."

Roy had been smoking since he was 13, and he said he never tried to quit before prison. "Out there, when it's an everyday thing, you don't think about it." Both his parents smoked, and having a six year-old daughter, Roy didn't want to pass on the habit. While in prison, he wrote and illustrated a children's book about smoking. He said he hopes that he can provide his daughter with positive guidance about tobacco that he didn't get growing up.

The high school students, who have given presentations about smoking to many groups, mostly students, said the inmates were the best audience they've ever had.

"It was fun — it was more interesting than I thought it would be," said Kat Sandin, a senior at Prospect Mountain.

"They were really receptive," said Stephen Ross, a junior at Dover High.

Amanda Cheney, a junior at Prospect Mountain, was nervous leading up to the presentation. "I was scared. I had never been in a prison before." She said the experience was better than she had feared it would be.

Coplan was also pleased at how the inmates behaved and participated during the guest presentation. However, she added, "they didn't have a choice to come today — they're a captive audience."