Maryland Prisons to Institute Tobacco Ban

Tobacco, matches and lighters will be banned at all state prisons in June after some inmates complained of ill effects from secondhand smoke, the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said Thursday.

The action partially settles a lawsuit by five former and current inmates. Other aspects of a settlement still are being negotiated, their attorney, Andrew Freeman, said Thursday. The lawsuit sought an order requiring the state either to enforce its 1995 law banning indoor smoking in prisons or to offer smoke-free housing. Inmates “are supposed to be sentenced to a period of incarceration, not to death by lung cancer or heart attacks,” Freeman said.

The order covers 25 prisons with more than 23,300 inmates.