Radford, a former POW, indicated that although active trading of other goods and services existed, only cigarettes were transformed from a commodity to a form of currency due to their durability, portability, supply, and demand. Radford’s (1945) description of a Nazi Germany prisoner of war (POW) camp was the first to discuss the economic and social importance of cigarettes in an inmate economy.
Traditionally, cigarettes have been used by inmates as a standard form of currency in informal prison economies. Consequently, an informal economy develops that is premised on consuming prohibited or contraband items and “hustles” ( Gleason, 1978) to earn extra resources to pay for contraband and legitimate commissary goods. For many inmates, however, the formal prison economy does not provide enough opportunities to earn income and offers too few desirable goods and services from the commissary. This official system includes inmate monetary accounts, which are supplemented through prison employment and deposits made by associates, as well as the commissary, which dispenses goods, such as soap, snack foods, and sometimes cigarettes. The formal economy constitutes a prison’s legitimate economic system that includes prison industries, work release programs, and other licit activities that generate income for inmates (and the correctional facility).
The legitimate and illicit exchanges of goods and services occurring inside jails and prisons comprise both a formal and informal economic system ( Williams & Fish, 1974). THE FUNCTION OF CIGARETTES IN A PRISON ECONOMY Although these factors affect the influx of other types of contraband in to correctional facilities, such as illegal drugs, we argue that the demand and availability of cigarettes creates a unique kind of black market.
In particular, our analysis points to several structural factors that affect the development of cigarette black markets in the facilities that we visited: the architectural design of the institution, including the configuration of inmate-housing units the degree to which inmates move around and outside of an institution and the vigilance of correctional officers and staff in enforcing the smoking policy and their involvement in smuggling cigarettes to inmates. In the following analysis, we contrast relatively benign cigarette “gray markets,” where cigarettes are traded and used as currency in facilities that restrict tobacco, with more problematic black markets, where cigarettes are a highly priced contraband item in facilities that ban tobacco. We conducted ethnographic case studies of smoking policies in 16 jails and prisons to understand the effects of cigarette bans (the prohibition of tobacco) and restrictions (the sanctioning of tobacco smoking) on the exchange and use of cigarettes among inmates. In particular, no research has focused specifically on cigarette black markets that invariably emerge in jails and prisons where tobacco is prohibited. Despite this trend toward banning tobacco in correctional facilities, virtually no studies have examined the effect of this policy change on inmate culture and prison economies. In institutions where bans are enforced, inmates are prohibited from smoking any form of tobacco inside the facility or outside on the facility grounds. prisons ban inmates from smoking cigarettes or possessing tobacco ( Falkin, Strauss, & Lankenau, 1998, 1999). Since the mid-1980s, cigarette-smoking policies have become increasingly restrictive in jails and prisons across the United States. Although these factors affect the influx of other types of contraband into correctional facilities, such as illegal drugs, this study argues that the demand and availability of cigarettes creates a unique kind of black market. Analysis points to several structural factors that affected the development of cigarette black markets in the visited facilities: the architectural design, inmate movement inside and outside, officer involvement in smuggling cigarettes to inmates, and officer vigilance in enforcing the smoking policy. This study describes how bans can transform largely benign cigarette “gray markets,” where cigarettes are used as a currency, into more problematic black markets, where cigarettes are a highly priced commodity. Case studies of 16 jails and prisons were undertaken to understand the effects of cigarette bans versus restrictions on inmate culture and prison economies. Cigarette black markets of various form and scale often emerge in jails and prisons where tobacco is prohibited or banned.
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