A swipe at wipe -AB

By CARY CASTAGNA, EDMONTON SUN Sat, November 5, 2005

Toilet paper rationing now the rule at remand centre

Toilet paper is being rationed at the Edmonton Remand Centre in an effort to wipe out its misuse.

"It's one roll per cell per day," Andy Weiler, spokesman for the Solicitor General's department, told the Sun yesterday.

"Staff are aware that toilet paper is being used by some inmates to make wicks, which they light and burn for a long time. Because of that, staff are handing out one roll of toilet paper per cell per day."

One 58-year-old inmate, in remand for alleged break-ins, says it's unfair to be so stingy when there's sometimes up to three men sharing the space - and the toilet.

"Rationing toilet paper, I mean, holy Toledo," said the inmate, who did not want his name used.

One daily roll of bathroom tissue, even for three men, is plenty, said Weiler.

Ever since the smoking ban went into effect in Alberta prisons last fall, inmates have been fashioning long slow-burning wicks by tightly twisting toilet paper.

The wicks are then lit with a spark created from sticking staples, paper clips and nails into electrical outlets.

"Apparently those wicks can burn for a long time once they're lit," Weiler said.

Inmates use the wicks to light jail-made cigarettes filled with contraband tobacco and a bizarre list of tobacco substitutes that includes pencil shavings, dry soup mix, grass, leaves, tree bark, toast crumbs, pepper and the contents of nicotine patches.

Tea bags are no longer available at the remand centre because the leaves were being smoked.

Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents remand centre guards, joked prison managers are being "hard asses" over the toilet-paper rationing.

But he said the bathroom-tissue wicks have been responsible for several small cell fires in the overcrowded remand centre.

And packaging from the toilet paper rolls is being used as rolling paper for jail-made cigarettes, said MacLennan, who isn't sure whether the toilet-paper rationing will work.

"I'm sure if somebody needed extra toilet paper, they can find a way to get it from other inmates," he added.

Weiler said the unofficial policy isn't written in stone and certain extenuating circumstances like "maybe a roll falls in the toilet" will be taken into account.

Last month, Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko considered banning caffeine and sugar from Alberta's prisons, but Premier Ralph Klein quashed the controversial plan.

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Manitoba jail bans tea

September 12, 2005

WINNIPEG (CP) - A Manitoba jail has stopped serving tea because some inmates were using tea bags to make cigarettes.

Smoking has been banned at the Headingley Correctional Centre near Winnipeg since November 2003, but that hasn't stopped some inmates from finding creative ways to get their fix. All they need is a dried-out tea bag and some nicotine chewing gum.

"The gum is boiled and there's a nicotine residue that's removed and dried and then sprinkled on the redried tea bag leaves, and then rolled," jail superintendent Cathy Sandney said Monday.

Jail officials were surprised inmates would go through the painstaking process to get a smoke, Sandney said, because it can take up to two days to make one cigarette.

The jail stopped serving tea last week, but is looking at offering instant tea - which has no bags.

The inmates' creativity already caused a stir earlier this year when officials discovered some were using the thin pages of Bibles to roll homemade cigarettes.

That prompted the jail to stop making the book widely available in living quarters. Inmates wanting a Bible must now ask for it from chaplains, who assess whether the Scripture will be read or burned.

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Inmate wins smoke suit

TRACEY TYLER LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
Oct. 15, 2005

Killer gets $5,000 in damages Allergic man not kept `safe'

Canada's correctional service has been ordered to pay $5,000 in damages to a convicted murderer who was exposed to second-hand smoke in an Ontario prison.

The Correctional Service of Canada had a duty to incarcerate Vlado Maljkovich in conditions that were "healthful and that did not cause him to suffer physical discomfort" and it failed to take reasonable steps to ensure its non-smoking policy was enforced, the Federal Court of Canada ruled yesterday.

Enforcement of the policy depended at least in part on inmates complaining to prison authorities about illicit smoking, which was "unreasonable" and placed Maljkovich in an "unenviable" position of having to inform on fellow prisoners, the court said.

It is believed to be the first time a Canadian court has ruled on a second-hand smoke complaint from an inmate and the implications may reach beyond prisons, said John Hill, Maljkovich's lawyer.

"I think the non-smoking public won a big victory here as well," he said.

If inmates can recover damages for being thrust into a smoke-filled environment, it could lead to lawsuits from other citizens exposed to second-hand smoke, he said. There could also be more lawsuits from inmates, Hill added.

The correctional service has announced plans to ban smoking in all federal prisons and halfway houses by Jan. 31, 2006.

But Hill said it will be up to individual prison wardens to enforce the policy.

Maljkovich is serving a life sentence for the 1995 murders of his wife and daughter in Etobicoke. His lawsuit concerned conditions at Fenbrook Institution, a medium-security prison near Gravenhurst, where he was incarcerated for three years.

Maljkovich told prison authorities he has an allergy to tobacco smoke, which leaves him with headaches, nausea and an irritated throat.

At Fenbrook, which opened in 1998, the ventilation system circulated air from smoking areas into non-smoking areas, the court said.

Inmates are housed in four separate buildings and have their own rooms with windows that open. While some living quarters were non-smoking, inmates in other parts of the building could smoke in their own rooms. Smoking was also permitted outside.

Inmates were disciplined for violating the non-smoking policy only if their offences were brought to the attention of correctional officers.

The correctional service violated sections of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act that require it to house inmates in safe and healthy conditions, said Martha Milczynski, who heard the case as a Federal Court prothonotary, or judicial officer.

She awarded him $5,000 in general damages for stress and physical discomfort, but rejected his claim that exposure to smoke was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Charter of Rights.

Suzanne Leclerc, a correctional service spokesperson, said that starting Nov. 1, inmates will be provided with smoking cessation aids such as patches and gum. After three months, they must buy their own.

Maljkovich, is now incarcerated at Pittsburgh Institution, in Joyceville, near Kingston.

The judge who sentenced him said that while the crimes involved "senseless brutality," Maljkovich had lived an otherwise exemplary life. Before the murders, he was treated for depression, his marriage was breaking down and he was convinced his wife was having affairs.

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