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BCC forges ahead with smoking ban

Prisoners' rights group worries about effect on inmates

JANE GEORGE

Smoking by staff and inmates at the Baffin Correctional Centre will soon be history.

"We are going non-smoking in the building at the Baffin Correction Centre," said Nunavut's director of corrections, Ron McCormick. "Right now, we provide two smoking rooms in the building, and come June 1 we are going non-smoking in the building."

The decision that will affect approximately 100 inmates and staff at BCC is in line with the new Environmental Tobacco Smoke Work Site Regulations, which were approved last November by the ministers responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board for Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

These regulations mean that, after May 1, you won't be able to smoke in or even near an enclosed work site, such as a bar or restaurant, where other people are on the job. You won't be able to light up a cigarette within three metres of most workplaces, and, even then, special smoking areas will be required.

The only exceptions in these regulations are for underground miners and for people who actually live in an enclosed work-site, such as a jail, elders' centre or health facility. They'll also have a well-ventilated place set aside for smoking.

The idea behind the regulations is to protect workers from second-hand smoke. No safe level of exposure has been established, and studies show 80 per cent of second-hand smoke originates in the workplace.

"Offenders, when they go outside at various times, would be allowed to smoke," said McCormick. "We're not going to do a shelter. The guys go out to the bullpen and there's an exercise yard or they may go out carving, so it will be allowed there. It won't be that we provide them a building for them to smoke in outside."

Inmates at BCC are allowed out at least once a day.

"We allow fresh-air breaks daily, so if you're in remand you'd be allowed outside once a day, but other guys who aren't in remand are going out to work," McCormick said.

At BCC, inmates have access to cessation aids, such as a patch that releases nicotine into the bloodstream, allowing for an easier withdrawal from tobacco additiction.

"We've really had a positive response to the cessation programs with BCC. There's guys on the patch. This has been looked at as a positive thing by the offenders," McCormick said.

In McCormick's opinion, a series of graphic posters that show the damage cigarette smoking can cause on the body have been particularly effective in getting inmates to think about quitting.

"When they went up, there was a lot of guys who came forward and said 'I need to do something,'" he said.

Help will be offered to all inmates who want to stop smoking.

"We'll help them through it the best we can," McCormick promised. "That's what the nurse is doing now. As an ex-smoker myself, I know how hard it can be, so we're trying to help these guys through as best we can."

McCormick said he's already seeing a drop in the number of smokers at BCC.

"There are a lot less. Last time I was out there there was a half dozen who were on the patch," he said.

The John Howard Society of Nunavut, an organization that defends the rights of inmates, hasn't received any calls from inmates yet on the change in policy.

"It's our position that this could be harsh for the inmates that are there," said spokesperson Jay Wisintainer. "We felt that there should be a designated outside area."

Wisintainer said he's concerned that the new regulations will drive cigarette smoking underground at BCC and create a new problem at the facility.

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