Jail cracks down on banana and orange-peel smoking

Inmates inside the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, Maine, are losing their peels. After discovering that some inmates were smoking dried banana and orange peel, administrators have ordered kitchen staff to peel bananas before they're served to inmates. The jail has halted the purchase of oranges.

Inmates have been using smuggled lighters or jury-rigged electrical outlets to spark their fruity cigars. Because smoking is not allowed in jails, any smoking material is considered contraband.

"It's been a problem for six or eight months," said Lt. Jeff Chute, the jail's assistant administrator. "It started with bananas." During a routine check, guards discovered a tobacco-like smell and traced it to the charred peels. "They're doing it to get some kind of high, but all my research says there is none," Chute said. "It doesn't work."

When the supply of bananas stopped, smokers turned to oranges. "These inmates have all day, every day, to think this stuff up," Chute said. Any inmate found to be smoking fruit - or anything else - faces punishment that could include seclusion or loss of good time credits on a sentence.