Inmates puffing for profit? Local sheriffs say don't expect
e-cigs here  Posted at: 01/24/2014 5:00 PM Updated at:
01/24/2014 5:47 PM By: Mark Mulholland  QUEENSBURY - It's
expensive to run a jail.  It's typically the costliest part of a
county sheriff's budget.  So any time something new comes along
to offset those costs, sheriffs are all ears.  County sheriffs
in the South and Midwest have reportedly found a jail money
maker: electronic cigarettes. They buy them for less than three
dollars and sell them to inmates for about 10 dollars.  But
local sheriffs say that mark-up wouldn't be allowed in New York
where the law says inmates are supposed to get items at a
reasonable cost.  Sheriffs where the cigarettes are being sold
say they also help control the behavior of the inmates, by
calming them down.  Warren County Sheriff Bud York doesn't
believe that inmates need rewards to behave.  "Don't give them
privileges to make them behave themselves. Make them abide by
the rules," he said.  York says the electronic