Miscellaneous

Smokin' in the Boys Room

By Anne Skove, Esq.

We believe that bans on [pit bulls, smoking, adult ads, transfats, sheep offal, peanut butter, you name it] are like diets: easy to talk about, difficult to do.

One criminal justice center recently banned smoking. See how easy that was? Smoking! Everybody, even most smokers, hates it.

Now it faces the difficult challenge of keeping sneaky smokers' butts out of the stairwells.

Why can't they just go outside like every other smoker in the world? (Hypothermia and heat stroke will soon become the leading causes of smoking-related death!) Increased justice center security makes coming and going a leisurely adventure, and nobody wants to wait.

Something to ponder the next time banning something comes up (and it will).

Interesting that court security is part of the equation here. Many courts decide to install cameras or new safety procedures without a thought to important issues such as "people to watch the monitors," "what physical standards should security guards meet?" or "just how mad will attorneys be when we ask them to hand over their cells?"

See CJC: We'll Fix Illegal Smoking, Brian X. McCrone, Metro (June 11, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on June 10, 2008 (boomark / email).