[Chancellor]

Quote by: Osborn F Enready Firstly, tobacco has been used by every society that has known about its existence. Secondly, smoking is not the evil it is being portrayed as, and it is an individual choice.

Agreed. The issue for me isn't the use of tobacco.

(if the prisoner can get the smokes, who is to say they can't smoke them?!?)

Because they're prisoners. They're being punished for crimes (whether what they're being punished for should be considered a crime is a separate issue). The time they're serving is supposed to be inconvenient for them. It's not meant to be comfortable for them.

Thirdly, they aren't being imprisoned to keep them away from cigarettes, they are being imprisoned to pay the price for their wrongs committed against other individuals, or groups of individuals. (why is smoking an issue at all, in relation to prisoners?)

It isn't about keeping them away from cigarettes, it's about the fact that they're prisoners.

They don't, but they also don't deserve to by cruelly or unusually punished. Being allowed to smoke isn't the same as being allowed to walk the yard without shackles or oversight, as a guard would be, and its not really any type of comparison.

What is cruel and unusual? One might argue that imprisonment for possession of marijuana is cruel and unusual (one might even argue that having laws against ingesting that plant are unconstitutional). However, being in prison, a facility paid for by the taxpayers, is not the same as being out in the community. Maybe if we stopped coddling prisoners while we're punishing law-abiding citizens the threat of prison might be more of a deterrent to crime.

Since they are socialized healthcare, it wouldn't suprise me.

Me either.

Because smoking is an individual choice, and just because their authoritarian government votes to restrict those rights, doesn't mean I have to condone it, or stand by silently and watch.

They're prisoners: why are they even entitled to choices? They're being punished for crimes.