The Texas legislature codified this criminal offense in Texas Penal Code Section 48.015
(Seen this way, each episode is prefaced with this new all-caps disclaimer from CBS: WE DO NOT RECOMMEND SMOKING, WHICH CAUSES LUNG CANCER AND OTHER DISEASES.) Episodes open with the cigarette companys living trademark, bellhop Johnny Roventini arguably better known than either Ball or Arnaz at the time singing the then-famous jingle Call for Philip Morris. In the first four episodes, hes followed by a smoking, hard-sell announcer citing claims by medical authorities that the cigarettes cause less irritation than competitors before the show begins
And so I tend to see much of this smoking ban as being on its face about improving the health of inmates, but given the broader punitive thrust of incarceration in America, most of whats going on with the tobacco ban is really about saying, lets punish them
And the close contact a smoker maintains with his cigarettesa pack-a-day smoker reaches for the pack twenty times a day, picks up a cigarette when hes tense, habitually handles and puffs at it while hes making the decisions that his working day calls for, and continues puffing away hour upon hour in his free timemakes the cigarette he uses enough a part of his living style so that distinctive packaging and appearance provide a marked identity to the particular brands a merchandiser is promoting aside from its actual taste
