SPRINGFIELD - Five months after the statewide smoking ban forced all Illinois inmates to go cold turkey, naysayers' predictions of doom have yet to come true, said prison officials.

Critics of the policy when it was first debated - such as the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees - warned of the possibility of a cigarette black market arising within prison facilities or arguments over smokes becoming all the worse due to their scarcity.

AFSCME last year filed an unfair business practices suit against the state, claiming it was not fair to employees because it could ratchet up tension in an already tense environment.

But recently, the union declined to comment on the situation.

In the meantime, Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said the transition has gone well.

"Overall we think it's gone very smooth and we think the staff has been very professional in dealing with this new law," Schnapp said. "I've talked to our wardens and our security staff and overwhelmingly they think it's been a smooth transition."

Jeff Gill, a correctional officer at Big Muddy Correctional Center in Ina, supported the smoking ban while it went through the General Assembly. He said the change to smoke-free prisons has not caused any real problems for guards that he's spoken with.

"I work on the front line too, so I didn't feel like I would introduce anything that was going to put us in jeopardy," Gill said.

Prison facilities are not without contraband, Schnapp said, but the volume of such violations has not increased since the ban. He also said prison facilities started making the transition months before the ban went into effect.

"They knew about the state law," Schnapp said. "It was not a surprise come Jan 1."

Inmates went through programs to help them quit smoking leading up to the ban. The financial impact of going cold turkey was low, Schnapp said, due to the fact that health care providers for prisons are already under contract and any nicotine patches are bought by the inmates themselves.

"You're going to get a mixed reaction on this," Schnapp said. "We've actually got a lot of positive response as well."