Tobacco News and Interesting Information

WILLIAMSPORT - An Allenwood Federal Penitentiary guard who admitted he provided inmates with tobacco products remains on the job and wants permission to carry a gun while on duty if his sentence is probation.

Timothy M. Noone, 42, of Lewisburg, a unit manager, is required as part of his job to be able to carry a gun. Federal guards are not armed unless an emergency arises.

One of the standard conditions of probation is a prohibition on possessing a gun, said Leonard R. Bogart, chief probation officer in the U.S. Middle District.

A judge has the discretion to waive that prohibition, but it is rarely done, he said.

A plea agreement on the misdemeanor charge of providing contraband to inmates provides for a sentence of probation. When Noone pleaded guilty Feb. 23, his lawyer, Stephen Becker, asked Magistrate Judge Malachy E. Mannion to make an exception to the gun prohibition.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney George J. Rocktashel, said it would be inappropriate for him at this stage of the proceedings to respond to Becker's request.

Noone pleaded guilty to giving inmates 137 packs of cigarettes and hundreds of packs of cigarette rolling paper between June 27 and Oct. 23, 2005, after inmate use of tobacco products in federal prisons was banned.

At the time, a cigarette was selling in the prison for between $7 and $10, an investigator said. Noone told Mannion he was not paid by inmates to store their cigarettes.

Noone termed his distribution of cigarettes a management tool because he expected information from inmates about illegal activity in return. He also said a number of the inmates in his unit had mental problems, and he gave them cigarettes on weekends to help keep them under control.

He is free on personal recognizance pending sentencing.