Can You Smoke In Prison?

By Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., and Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA

No. People in federal prison cannot smoke, and they cannot possess tobacco in any form — the only exception is tobacco used as part of an authorized religious activity, which the warden has to designate a place for. That has been the rule since 2016, but the Bureau of Prisons rewrote its own instructions for enforcing it on 7 May 2026, when Program Statement 1641.01, Smoking/No Smoking Areas and Electronic Cigarettes, rescinded and replaced the two policies every other page on this subject still cites.

Question	Current answer	Source
Can a federal prisoner smoke?	No, except as part of an authorized inmate religious activity	28 C.F.R. § 551.162
Can a federal prisoner possess tobacco?	No — “in any form,” same religious exception	28 C.F.R. § 551.163
Can staff or official visitors smoke?	Only in an outdoor area the warden designates	PS 1641.01 at p. 3
Are e-cigarettes treated the same?	Yes — vaping is folded into the same policy as of 7 May 2026	PS 1641.01 at p. 1
Governing policy	PS 1641.01 (7 May 2026) — rescinds PS 1640.05 (1/7/2015) and PS 1640.06 (11/9/2017)	PS 1641.01 at p. 1
Governing regulation	28 C.F.R. pt. 551, subpart N (§§ 551.161–551.163)	PS 1641.01 at p. 5
Disciplinary code for smoking	Code 332, Moderate severity	PS 5270.09 at p. 52
Disciplinary code for having tobacco	Code 331, Moderate severity	PS 5270.09 at p. 52
Nicotine patches and lozenges	Sold in the commissary, with a provider’s written approval on form BP-A1019	PS 1641.01 at p. 4
Nicotine pouches (non-cessation)	Newly approved for commissary sale; buyer must be 21 or older	PS 4500.13 at p. 35–[p. 36]
Cessation program deadline	Within the first 90 days for newly committed people	PS 1641.01 at p. 3

Current as of 7 September 2026. A Program Statement is the Bureau’s own policy, not law — the regulation binds the Bureau; the Program Statement is how the Bureau tells its staff to apply it.

What changed on 7 May 2026, and why nobody else has caught it

On 7 May 2026 the Bureau issued Program Statement 1641.01, signed by Director William K. Marshall III. Its Summary of Changes says exactly what it did, at p. 1:

• It rescinded PS 1640.05, Smoking/No Smoking Areas (1/7/2015).
• It rescinded PS 1640.06, Electronic Cigarettes (11/9/2017).
• It combined the two into one policy covering both smoking and vaping.
• It added that “lozenges or patches may be utilized for smoking cessation.”
• It updated form BP-A1019, Inmate Nicotine Replacement Therapy Approval, which this policy prescribes.

If you are reading a page — anywhere — that cites “Program Statement 1640.05” for the federal smoking ban, that page is citing a rescinded document. The number changed, the series changed (from 1640 to 1641), and the office of primary interest changed to the Health Services Division.

Here is the part that matters more than the renumbering, and it is the point most coverage of this topic gets backwards: the rule itself did not change. The binding regulation, 28 C.F.R. § 551.162, has carried an effective date of 29 December 2016 throughout. Congress did not act; the Bureau did not amend the regulation. What changed in May 2026 is the Bureau’s internal instruction for applying a regulation that already existed. That distinction is not academic. If someone tells you the smoking rules “just changed,” the honest answer is that the policy document was reissued and the nicotine products sold in the commissary changed — the prohibition did not loosen by a word.

Two further changes landed the same day and are easy to miss because they live in a different policy. PS 4500.13, the Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, also dated 7 May 2026, updated the approved commissary list “to include mattresses and nicotine pouches for other than the Smoking Cessation Program,” and revised the spending-limitation exclusion list to include nicotine lozenges — PS 4500.13 at p. 2. In plain terms: FDA-authorized nicotine pouches are now a commissary item at institutions that stock them, and cessation lozenges do not count against the monthly commissary spending cap. We cover the cap and the rest of the shopping list on our commissary and canteen page.

The rule itself: 28 C.F.R. part 551, subpart N

The Program Statement reproduces the regulation verbatim. These four provisions are the whole of federal smoking law inside a Bureau institution.

Provision	What it says	Where
§ 551.161 Definitions	“Smoking is defined as inhaling the smoke of any substance through the use of smoking apparatus including, but not limited to, cigars, cigarettes, or pipes.” An E-cigarette is “any electronic device capable of being a vaporizing delivery system.”	PS 1641.01 at p. 2
§ 551.162 Smoking generally prohibited	Smoking is generally prohibited in and on the grounds of Bureau institutions and offices, with two exceptions: (a) as part of an authorized inmate religious activity; and (b) for Bureau staff and official visitors, only in warden-designated smoking areas	28 C.F.R. § 551.162
§ 551.163 Possession prohibited	“Possession of smoking apparatus and tobacco in any form is prohibited for inmates, unless as part of an authorized inmate religious activity.”	28 C.F.R. § 551.163
Designated areas	“Designated area is defined as a smoking/vaping area which the Warden has clearly identified.” Only outdoor locations may be designated, and they “must not be located in front of air intake ducts”	PS 1641.01 at p. 2–[p. 3]

Read § 551.163 slowly, because the phrase that does the work is “in any form.” It is not a ban on lit cigarettes. Chewing tobacco, snuff, loose tobacco, rolling papers and a pipe with nothing in it are all covered. So is a home-made smoking apparatus. The Bureau’s commissary policy states the same thing from the other direction: apart from approved nicotine pouches, “all chewing tobacco and tobacco-containing products, such as cigarettes, cigars, pipes, rolling papers, snuff, and snus, etc. are prohibited” from sale — PS 4500.13 at p. 36.

The two exceptions cut in different directions and it is worth being precise about who they cover:

• The religious exception belongs to the incarcerated person. Where smoking is part of an authorized religious activity, “the Warden must designate a smoking area for use,” and the Bureau’s religious practice policy governs the details — PS 1641.01 at p. 3. In practice this is most often ceremonial tobacco in Native American religious observance. It is not a general permission slip; it is tied to a specific authorized activity in a specific designated place. Our page on religious programs in prison explains how a religious accommodation request is made.
• The designated-area exception belongs to staff and official visitors, not to you. The policy is explicit that outdoor designated areas “are for use only by staff” — PS 1641.01 at p. 3. A family member arriving for a visit is not an “official visitor” and should assume there is nowhere on the grounds they are permitted to smoke.

Vaping, e-cigarettes and what may cross the perimeter

Before May 2026 electronic cigarettes had their own separate policy. They are now handled inside PS 1641.01, and the restrictions on the device itself are unusually specific. A vaping device permitted inside the secure perimeter “cannot have any extra electronic purpose (Bluetooth, radio, etc.).” No charger and no refilling liquid may come inside the secure perimeter at all, and no electronic nicotine delivery system may be connected to a Bureau computer — PS 1641.01 at p. 3.

Indoor smoking and vaping are prohibited in perimeter towers and perimeter patrol vehicles, and the program objectives state that all Bureau facilities “will be free of second-hand smoke and vaping fumes, except staff housing when used as a residence” — PS 1641.01 at p. 2.

None of this creates any avenue for an incarcerated person to vape. An e-cigarette in the hands of someone in custody is an electronic device that was not issued through regular channels, which is its own disciplinary problem before you reach the nicotine in it. See our page on searches, shakedowns and contraband for how that plays out.

Nicotine is back on the commissary shelf — in two different forms

This is the most practically useful change of 2026, and the two routes are not the same. Confusing them is how people end up with an incident report.

Route one: Nicotine Replacement Therapy, for cessation. Nicotine patches and lozenges may be sold in the commissary, but only with a written approval from a Bureau health care provider. The mechanics, from PS 1641.01 at p. 4:

1. The person requests NRT and obtains written approval from a Bureau health care provider on form BP-A1019, Inmate Nicotine Replacement Therapy Approval.
2. They take the signed BP-A1019 to the commissary, which “allows them to purchase two weeks of NRT at a time.”
3. Commissary staff initial the BP-A1019 each time NRT is purchased.
4. The person keeps the BP-A1019 until the final supply has been purchased.

The trust-fund side adds the verification detail: at purchase, staff confirm the authorization shows the date, committed name, register number, and “specific dosage of NRT patches or lozenges authorized,” and the commissary stocks NicoDerm and Nicorette brand patches and lozenges “sufficient for a two-week supply” — PS 4500.13 at p. 35. NRT patches and lozenges are excluded from the monthly commissary spending limitation (PS 4500.13 at p. 28), and Smoking Cessation Program materials carry no mark-up at all — they are sold at cost, unlike almost everything else on the shelf, which is priced at cost plus a 30% base mark-up rounded to the next highest nickel (PS 4500.13 at p. 38).

Route two: non-cessation nicotine pouches. This is new in the 7 May 2026 manual and it operates on completely different rules. Under “(19) Non-Cessation Nicotine Pouches,” at PS 4500.13 at p. 35–[p. 36]:

• Local policy governs purchase limits. There is no national quantity.
• Only nicotine pouches authorized by the Food and Drug Administration are permitted.
• Trust Fund staff must verify the buyer is at least 21, using the Bureau’s records or a BOP identification card showing date of birth; failure to provide acceptable age verification results in denial of access to the product.
• Pouches are priced with the standard commissary mark-up and are excluded from any nicotine cessation program — they are a retail item, not a treatment.
• They must be stored in a locked safe or metal container, secured in a locked drawer at sales stations, never left accessible to inmates, and counted in a documented full physical inventory at the completion of sales each day, before inmate workers are released, with all discrepancies reported in writing to the Trust Fund Supervisor.

That last bullet tells you how the Bureau views these things. A daily physical count with written discrepancy reporting is inventory control applied to something the Bureau expects to be diverted. Nicotine lozenges are on the spending-limitation exclusion list (PS 4500.13 at p. 2); pouches, being a standard retail item, are not.

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The gap between “the commissary sells nicotine pouches” and “you may have nicotine pouches” is where incident reports get written. A pouch bought lawfully by a 21-year-old and then handed to a 24-year-old is no longer an authorized item in the second person’s hands — it was not issued through regular channels and was not purchased by them. Before assuming any nicotine product is permitted at a particular institution, we look at that institution’s own commissary list and its Trust Fund Operations supplement, because PS 4500.13 leaves purchase limits to local policy.

The smoking and vaping cessation program, and how to ask for it

Every warden “must establish an institution Smoking/Vaping Cessation Program consistent with local resources for newly committed inmates within the first 90 days of incarceration” — PS 1641.01 at p. 3. The Admission and Orientation handbook is required to tell people the program exists and how to apply.

At a minimum the program must address four things, per PS 1641.01 at p. 4: nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and Nicotine Replacement Therapy. Institutions deliver it through some combination of videos, classroom presentations, recreation activities, the sale of patches or lozenges in the commissary, and group or individual counseling.

If your loved one arrived more than 90 days ago and has never heard of a cessation program, the route is the same as for any unmet service: a written Inmate Request to Staff, on form BP-A0148, addressed to Health Services and asking specifically for (1) the institution’s Smoking/Vaping Cessation Program and (2) an evaluation for NRT with a BP-A1019 if clinically appropriate. Keep the copy. If nothing happens, that written request is the informal-resolution step that anchors a later filing under the Administrative Remedy Program — the process we walk through on our prison grievances page. Whether NRT is clinically appropriate is a decision for a Bureau health care provider; nobody outside the institution can promise it will be approved. The broader medical-access framework is on our medical care in federal prison page and in the Bureau’s Patient Care and Over-the-Counter Medications policies.

What happens if someone is caught: the two codes, and what they cost

Smoking and tobacco possession are both Moderate severity prohibited acts. The codes come from Table 1 of the Inmate Discipline Program, and they are also codified — the binding version is the table at 28 C.F.R. § 541.3.

Code	Act	Severity	Where
332	“Smoking where prohibited.”	Moderate	PS 5270.09 at p. 52
331	Possession, manufacture, introduction, or loss of a non-hazardous tool, equipment, supplies, or other non-hazardous contraband — the text expressly names “smoking apparatus and tobacco in any form where prohibited”	Moderate	PS 5270.09 at p. 52
305	“Possession of anything not authorized for retention or receipt by the inmate, and not issued to him through regular channels.”	Moderate	PS 5270.09 at p. 51
328	Giving or accepting money or anything of value to or from another inmate or any other person without staff authorization	Moderate	PS 5270.09 at p. 52
108	Possession, manufacture, introduction, or loss of a hazardous tool — the definition names a “portable telephone, pager, or other electronic device”	Greatest	PS 5270.09 at p. 45

The sanctions available at the Moderate level, from PS 5270.09 at p. 53–[p. 54], include disallowance of “ordinarily up to 25% (1–14 days) of good conduct time credit available for year,” disciplinary segregation of up to 3 months, monetary fine, loss of privileges including visiting, telephone and commissary, loss of job, change of housing, and confiscation of the contraband. A good-conduct-time sanction may not be suspended.

Two consequences reach further than the hearing room. A disciplinary finding feeds into security designation and custody classification, which is what moves someone from a camp to a low or from a low to a medium. And a lost day of good conduct time is a lost day, full stop. We handle the hearing process itself on our inmate discipline proceedings page, and the incident report form BP-A0288 is the document to ask for first.

Note what is not on that list. There is no federal statute making it a crime for a person in prison to smoke a cigarette. Tobacco is not a controlled substance and is not a “prohibited object” under 18 U.S.C. § 1791 by name. Somebody who mails tobacco into an institution is a different question — § 1791(d)(1)(G) reaches “any other object that threatens the order, discipline, or security of a prison,” and the Bureau’s own visitor policy warns that people who provide prohibited objects “are subject to criminal prosecution” (PS 5510.15 at p. 5). Section 1791’s maximum penalties run from six months to 20 years depending on which category of object is involved.

Why the Bureau calls tobacco “dangerous contraband”

This is the sentence that explains everything else on this page, and it sits in a policy most people never open. The Bureau’s visitor-search policy defines dangerous contraband to include weapons, drugs, explosives and poisons — and then adds:

“Tobacco products and paraphernalia are considered dangerous contraband due to their potential value to inmates who are prohibited from using them in facilities.”

PS 5510.15 at p. 5. The classification has nothing to do with health. Tobacco is dangerous, in the Bureau’s framing, precisely because it is banned: a banned thing with universal demand becomes currency, and currency inside a prison funds debt, extortion and violence. That is why a pouch of loose tobacco can trigger a staff response wildly out of proportion to what the same pouch would mean on the street, and it is why tobacco recurs on our page about the prison black market.

It also explains the enforcement apparatus. Tobacco introduction is one of the things ion spectrometry screening, whole body imaging and mail interdiction exist to stop. Contraband definitions and the search ladder are set out at 28 C.F.R. § 500.1(h) and in the searches of inmates and housing policy.

Do any federal prisons still allow smoking?

No federal Bureau of Prisons institution permits inmate smoking as a general matter, at any security level — the prohibition in § 551.162 is Bureau-wide and applies “in and on the grounds of Bureau institutions and offices.” That includes minimum-security camps, where people sometimes assume the rules are looser. They are not looser on this point.

Where institutions genuinely differ is in three narrow places, and all three are set locally:

1. Whether an outdoor staff smoking area exists, and where it is. Each institution “must develop an Institution Supplement identifying any authorized outdoor smoking/vaping areas within the institution only,” drafted by the Safety Department with recommended regional legal review — PS 1641.01 at p. 2.
2. Whether the commissary stocks nicotine pouches, and how many you may buy. Local policy governs purchase limits, and every institution decides its own approved-items list based on “the security, programs, climate, character, and composition of the inmate population” — PS 4500.13 at p. 29 and [p. 35].
3. What the local cessation program actually looks like. The floor is national; the delivery is “consistent with local resources.”

Anything you read that names a specific federal prison as “still allowing smoking” is describing either a state facility, a pre-2015 memory, or an outdoor staff area misread as an inmate one. State prison systems set their own rules and are outside this page entirely — if the person you are looking for is in a state facility, the Bureau’s policies do not apply to them at all. To confirm which system holds someone, start with our inmate locator walkthrough and the federal prison directory.

What families need to know

Never mail tobacco, and never bring it onto the grounds. By entering or attempting to enter Bureau grounds, a visitor consents to a search, and a sign in English and Spanish at every entrance says so — PS 5510.15 at p. 6. Visitors who provide or attempt to provide prohibited objects are subject to criminal prosecution, and providing contraband is not a technicality the institution overlooks. The Searching, Detaining, or Arresting Visitors policy and the BP-A0224 notification to visitor set out what happens next.

Understand what the ion scanner does before you visit. Under the ION Spectrometry Device Program, a hand-held device is passed over a visitor’s front pants pockets, waist area, pants cuff or shoe area, and both sides of their identification. It detects the presence of a substance, not use — but a confirmed positive result can cost a visit, and repeat results escalate to 30-, 90- and 180-day suspensions of visiting privileges. We set that ladder out in full on our searches and shakedowns page.

Send money, not things. Nicotine products, like everything else, are bought through the commissary account. Our guides to sending money to a federal inmate and how much to send cover the mechanics, and the Trust Fund and commissary policy is the governing document.

Expect withdrawal, and say so out loud. Someone who smoked a pack a day the week before surrender will be in nicotine withdrawal during their first days inside and through intake — the single most disorienting stretch of the whole sentence. That is worth raising during intake screening and worth planning for well before surrender, which is one of the things our guides to how to prepare for prison and preparing for prison work through. Alcohol and drug withdrawal are handled separately, on our alcohol and drugs page, and the residential drug abuse program is a different track again — it treats substance use disorder, not tobacco use.

Where people get stuck with tobacco contraband charges

“He got a shot for a cigarette butt he says wasn’t his.” Code 331 covers possession, and possession in a shared cell is frequently contested. The evidentiary standard at a disciplinary hearing is low — a court reviewing the result asks only whether “some evidence” in the record supports the finding, and that review “does not require examination of the entire record, independent assessment of the credibility of witnesses, or weighing of the evidence,” Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Institution at Walpole v. Hill, 472 U.S. 445 (1985). Low is not zero, though, and the place to build the record is the hearing itself, not afterward. See inmate discipline proceedings.

“The commissary sells pouches but he was told he can’t buy them.” Two likely reasons, both legitimate under the policy: he is under 21, or the institution’s local purchase limits or approved-items list do not include them. Ask for the institution’s Trust Fund Operations supplement and the current commissary shopping list — the price list is required to be distributed to help people prepare shopping lists in advance (PS 4500.13 at p. 39).

“He asked for the patch and nothing happened.” The bottleneck is almost always the BP-A1019: without a Bureau health care provider’s signed authorization the commissary cannot sell NRT. Put the request in writing to Health Services, keep the copy, and follow the administrative remedy sequence if it stalls.

“His property was confiscated during a shakedown.” Confiscated personal property is inventoried, and the person is entitled to a copy of the inventory “as soon as practicable” and has seven days after receiving it to provide evidence of ownership — PS 5580.10 at p. 13. Property is ordinarily held thirty days before destruction so the person can obtain proof or appeal, and if they appeal, the property is held until the appeal is complete — PS 5580.10 at p. 14. Details are on our searches and contraband page and in the inmate personal property and property claims policies.

Frequently Asked Questions About Smoking in Prison

Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026