Prisoners to be given carrot sticks to encourage them to quit smoking

June 1st, 2011 - 9:40 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

Wellington, June 1 (THAINDIAN NEWS) In a bid to get prisoners to quit smoking, officials at a prison in New Zealand are offering the smoking inmates carrot sticks. The general ambition is to get the country’s jails to be smoking-free area by July.

A new law that bans smoking in the various jails in New Zealand will come into force on the 1st of July. An internal memo from Invercargill Prison which reporters chanced on suggested that the inmates should be given two sticks of carrots a day to encourage them to stay nicotine free.

The Southland published details of the memo. In the memo, the officers at the facility were asked to use their ability to cut jumbo sized carrots so that they could get at least 16 carrot sticks from it. Not everyone is impressed that the move is such a good one.

The president of the Corrections Association of New Zealand, Beven Hanlon, told reporters that he initially laughed when he heard the story but when he realized that it was true, he gave the authorities the benefit of the doubt.

Hanlon said that, “I don’t think it is one of the best ideas but… It’s the whole oral thing… if they have got something in their mouth, they won’t be looking for a cigarette to put in it”.

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