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Florida prison chief bans tobacco in six months

Florida prison chief Edwin Buss says inmates hospitalized with smoking-related illnesses cost Florida taxpayers nearly $9 million last year

Corrections1 Staff

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida’s new prison chief has promised to ban tobacco from the state’s prison system within six months, the Associate Press reported yesterday.

Department of Corrections Secretary Edwin Buss announced on Monday that making Florida’s prisons tobacco-free will reduce health care costs and make prisons safer, according to the report.

Buss, who previously headed Indiana’s prison system, was one of Gov. Rick Scott’s first appointees, the AP said.

Buss put the costs to taxpayers of tobacco-related illness in Florida’s prisons last year at nearly $9 million, according to AP.

The AP report said Florida inmates will be offered smoking cessation assistance and designated employee smoking areas will be set up outside prison walls.

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