Starting Tuesday, the Macon County Jail in Tennessee will be selling electronic cigarettes to inmates as part of a new fundraising effort. According to a report, each e-cigarette will cost $13.50 and cannot be recharged so that after about 500 puffs, inmates will have to purchase another.
Sheriff Mark Gammons said that the specially designed e-cigarettes don’t have any sharp edges to preclude them being used as weapons.
“I hope I can make $45,000 a year and that profit will be turned in to help pay these guards for being understaffed, underpaid,” Gammons said.
In addition, Gammons said that e-cigarettes are one of the most popular items that inmates try to sneak into jail. With the new program, authorities can control which inmates can purchase them and when they get their nicotine fixes.