FLORENCE, SC (WMBF) The Darlington County Detention Center is seeing benefits from the electronic cigarettes that are behind bars.

The Darlington County Detention Center was the first in the state to allow inmates to smoke electronic cigarettes, but nationally, many jails are jumping on board because of the benefits they bring to jails.

“I was skeptical at first. E cigarette what is this saying, and is it really something that&#39 s going to be beneficial to us?” asked Sheriff Wayne Byrd of Darlington County.

That&#39 s what Sheriff Byrd was thinking eight months ago, when the idea of allowing inmates to smoke electronic cigarettes first came along.

The Darlington County Detention Center had historically been a non smoking facility, mostly to keep inmates from using cigarettes and lighters as weapons, but people tried to get them in anyway.

” Inmates smoke multiple packs a day, it&#39 s hard to get them to quit, so it was a big problem with people trying to sneak cigarettes in,” Byrd said.

Because more people were sneaking contraband into the prison, and the state cut funding for the jail, Darlington County decided to get creative and solve two problems at once.

“The big thing is it cuts down on the contraband. People try to smuggle cigarettes and lighters and things like that into the facility,”said Byrd.

“The ones that we use now, they don&#39 t even look like a cigarette and they&#39 re soft,” Byrd said.

Cross Bar, the company behind the product, is run by a correctional officer who, back in 2012, was looking to bring more revenue into his jail.

The company developed the e cigarettes out of the soft, plastic, relatively harmless material, and is now on track to bring Darlington County an extra $15,000 this year, money that must go back into the jail.

The funds will go towards “mattress, blankets anything they might need, and when we can make that money somewhere else we don&#39 t have to use tax money to buy those items,” said Byrd.

Detention Center Warden Major Mitch Stanley said he&#39 s even noticed fewer inmate fights since the e cigarettes were rolled out.

“Once we started the e cigarettes and they could get their nicotine fix, they calmed down,” said Major Stanley.

In some cases, the cigarettes have actually helped some people quit smoking.

“It actually has made a lot of people stop smoking, because they have used it as a deterrent, and some people who were heavy smokers have actually stopped and no longer buying the e cigarettes,” said Stanley.

The Detention Center here makes right around $5 for each e cigarette, and the more they sell, the less taxpayer money they have to use to run the jail.

Copyright 2014 WMBF News. All rights reserved.

La seita fermerait sa plus grande usine de cigarettes pres de nantes

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L’usine nantaise de la Seita, centre de fabrication de la marque de cigarettes Gauloises Blondes, pourrait bient t fermer ses portes. L’annonce pourrait tre faite lors du comit central d’entreprise de la filiale du groupe britannique Imperial Tobacco convoqu mardi 15 avril, selon Le Figaro. Contact e, la direction d’Altadis s’est refus e tout commentaire.

La f d ration CGT des tabacs avait tir la sonnette d’alarme, le 25 mars. Elle avait expliqu que la maison m re britannique pr parait un plan de restructuration de sa filiale fran aise qui toucherait 350 salari s sur 1 190, soit pr s d’un tiers des effectifs.

Le syndicat voquait alors la fermeture de l’usine install e Carquefou dans la banlieue nantaise. Ce site, qui emploie 327 personnes, a produit 12,2 milliards de cigarettes en 2013, essentiellement des Gauloises Blondes et des Gitanes Blondes, mais aussi des JPS. Cette fabrication en grand volume est destin e 60 % l’exportation.

La CGT s’interrogeait galement sur l’avenir du centre de recherche de Bergerac (Dordogne) qui emploie une trentaine de personnes. Elle affirme que la direction n gocie sa cession depuis deux ans France Tabac.

Une r organisation des forces de vente au si ge Paris est aussi envisag e, mais n’entra nerait pas de suppressions de postes.

Pour le syndicat CGT, l’argument de la baisse des ventes de tabac en France ou celui du succ s de la cigarette lectronique ne justifient pas cette restructuration. Elle s’inscrit plut t dans la strat gie financi re d’Imperial Tobacco qui a lanc un plan global d’ conomies de 385 millions d’euros d’ici 2018.

FERMETURES DE SITE

Or, la Seita, ex r gie publique fran aise des tabacs, avait fusionn en 1999, avec son homologue espagnol Tabacalera, donnant naissance au groupe Altadis. Lequel est tomb dans l’escarcelle d’Imperial Tobacco en 2008. Depuis, un millier d’emplois ont t supprim s la Seita.

Selon la CGT, les Britanniques proc dent, depuis l’acquisition d’Altadis, des fermetures de sites en Espagne et en France. Imperial Tobacco privil giant ses usines britanniques et polonaises, voire de la sous traitance en Alg rie.

La Seita poss de encore une usine de traitement du tabac au Havre (Seine Maritime) et une usine de fabrication de cigarettes Riom (Puy de D me) pour l’heure pr serv es. Mais la CGT s’interroge sur l’avenir plus long terme du site de Riom. Ses 200 salari s fabriquent des petites s ries, des menthol, des fines ou des longues. Bruxelles a d cid d’interdire les cigarettes menthol en 2020.