That’s why Bonnie Charlton, whose fiancé, Clarence Charlton, is incarcerated at the Allen Gamble Correctional Center in Holdenville, was excited to hear the Department of Corrections would relax its longstanding tobaccofree policy and allow prisoners to purchase e-cigarettes and flavored nicotine pouches.

She said the nicotine could help calm Clarence, who has faced mental health issues during his more than two decades in prison. Allen Gamble, one of the deadliest prisons in the state, is hardly a relaxing place to live.

“Smoking is bad for you,” Bonnie Charlton said. “We all know that. But it calms him down and acts as that kind of stress reliever.”

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections has moved quickly in the first quarter of 2026 to make nicotine products widely available to prisoners in its care. On March 3, a policy change exempting approved nicotine vapes and pouches from the agency’s tobaccofree policy took effect. Sales of the e-cigarettes and pouches, priced at $11.50 and $10.50 each, commenced immediately after. That’s more than many prisoners earn during an eighthour workday.

Prison staff, who aren’t allowed to take smoke breaks during their typical 12-hour shifts, are also permitted to purchase and use the products. The e-cigarettes, manufactured by the company Jail Puff Max with anti-tampering seals, last three to five days with regular use.

The agency claims the e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches will help calm the prison population and thwart the flow of contraband tobacco. Critics contend that the products are highly addictive, carry significant health risks and could come back to bite taxpayers in the form of high medical bills.

Department of Corrections spokesperson Kay Thompson said contraband tobacco has been an issue since the agency banned cigarettes in the mid-2000s. She said many prisoners enter the agency with a smoking or nicotine habit and will spend big to get access to illicit tobacco.

“This is going to reduce violence because people aren’t going into debt for cigarettes,” Thompson said. “If you’re smoking on the outside, and then all of a sudden have to go cold turkey, that’s rough.”

Consumption of the products is only allowed in designated outdoor spaces.

The nicotine products, with profit margins often exceeding 300%, stand to be big money makers for the agency. In 2025, the Tulsa County Jail sold 80,000 e-cigarettes and made $1 million in profit. Thompson said the Department of Corrections sold about $15,000 worth of the products on the first day of sales.

Like other commissary sales, Thompson said profits from the nicotine products will be allocated to the Empl oye e and Inmate Wellness Fund, which supports prison programs and supplies for indigent inmates.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with determining whether we would move forward with this,” Thompson said of potential profits from the nicotine products. “It really is violence reduction and reduction of contraband.”

Experts Fear Health Consequences The general scientific consensus is that e-cigarettes aren’t as harmful as traditional tobacco cigarettes. To what degree is an ongoing debate.

Stanton Glantz, a retired professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, sought to answer that question in a study published last month. Glantz and a partner researcher analyzed health outcomes of tobacco smokers, e-cigarette consumers and those who regularly used both.

The study concluded that e-cigarette users were almost as likely as smokers to develop chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. While e-cigarettes don’t contain the chemicals produced by combustible tobacco, they have been found to emit toxic metal compounds and volatile organic compounds. The impact of secondhand vape smoke has also drawn heightened scrutiny among researchers.

Glantz said the study affirms that e-cigarettes shouldn’t be promoted as a safer alternative to cigarettes.

“Let’s say e-cigarettes are 20% less bad than tobacco cigarettes,” Glantz said. “That’s like jumping out of the 40th story of a building instead of the 50th.”

In an interview with KOTV-TV last month, Department of Corrections Director Justin Farris said the ecigarettes the agency is selling are often offered to people trying to quit tobacco. But none of the products have received FDA approval to treat tobacco use, said Mark Meaney, director of the commercial tobacco control program at the Public Health Law Center.

“The FDA has a process to approve products for cessation, and none have even applied for that,” Meaney said. “I think that tells you all you need to know. The marketing advantage for the first e-cigarette approved for cessation would be huge.”

Glantz said tobacco companies have long sought strategies to get their products back into prisons, a captive audience that’s disproportionately poor and addiction-prone. While contraband cigarettes remain a problem, he said, smoke-free environments have helped many people quit tobacco.

“The single biggest thing you can do to help people quit smoking is maintain a smoke-free environment,” Glantz said. “Most adult smokers wish they didn’t smoke. Most want to quit. The thing is, if you’re in an environment where people are polluting the air with nicotine aerosol, and you’re trying to quit, it’s like a contact high.”

Thomas Larson, a spokesperson for the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, said the trust has encouraged the agency to consider the negative health effects of nicotine products. He said TSET has also discussed strategies to better support programs for prisoners seeking to permanently quit nicotine. FDA-approved cessation methods include nicotine patches, gum and prescription medications like bupropion.

Advocate Reaction Mixed

Emily Barnes, founder of the Oklahoma prisoner advocacy group Hooked on Justice, said she believes the products will be a net positive for the state’s prison system.

Family members supporting a loved one with a tobacco habit can spend upwards of $500 per month paying for contraband cigarettes, she said. If caught, possession of contraband tobacco is a class-X misconduct that can lead to earned credit being wiped away.

“It’s going to save family members money,” she said.

While she’s glad prisoners will have an approved option to quench nicotine cravings, Bonnie Charlton said she would prefer a more concerted effort to make approved cessation products easily accessible. She said she’s tried before to call the prison and request cessation aids, at Clarence’s request, but had no luck.

She also fears prisoners without a nicotine habit could become hooked on the products and push their family members to buy them more. She said a pilot program, with one prison testing the pros and cons of selling the products, could have been a better approach.

“Us as family members are stuck buying everything for them,” Bonnie Charlton said. “A lot of us are on budgets, so it’s kind of like they’re not just punishing them, they’re punishing the families as well when they’re making us pay so much.”