A former inmate at the Santa Fe County jail has filed a lawsuit claiming he was subjected to "cruel and unusual punishment" when he was forced to breathe the secondhand smoke of other prisoners' cigarettes.

The county jail's former manager, Cornell Corrections, is named as a defendant in the suit. A spokesman for Cornell said Monday he could not comment directly on the lawsuit because he hasn't seen it.

Ethan E. Roberts, who filed the suit last week in Santa Fe District Court, claims that because of his exposure to environmental tobacco smoke as an inmate at the county jail, "he has now lost a major portion of his lung capacity and can be expected to become fully disabled."

According to the lawsuit, inmates at the Santa Fe County jail, "smoke cigarettes in their cells and living areas in an unrestricted manner."

Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said in a recent interview that he would like the county to change the jail's smoking policy and make it a smoke-free facility, both for inmates and guards.

Solano said that in addition to cutting down on the health risk to inmates and employees, adopting a no-smoking policy also might cut down on the amount of illegal drugs that is brought into the facility, because inmates will instead focus on trying to smuggle in cigarettes.

Solano could not be reached for comment on Roberts' lawsuit Monday, but he has said that the County Commission would ultimately need to approve any smoking ban at the jail.

Roberts, now an inmate at a federal penitentiary in Big Spring, Texas, was housed at the Santa Fe County jail from April 16, 1999, to June 8, 2000, according to the lawsuit.

An official at the Federal Correctional Institution in Big Spring could not be reached for comment Monday to explain why Roberts is in prison.

Roberts says in his lawsuit that four days after his arrival at the Santa Fe jail, he has placed in a 10-by-8-foot cell with a prisoner who smoked about 15 cigarettes a day. Subsequent bunkmates included inmates who smoked a pack a day; three packs a day; and 12 to 15 days, respectively, according to the suit.

Roberts claims in the suit he had not smoked cigarettes for over seven years prior to being admitted at the Santa Fe County jail. After about 75 days of exposure to high levels of secondhand smoke, Roberts started smoking one to five cigarettes a day to "ward off the withdrawal symptoms," according to the lawsuit.

When Roberts complained to medical staff at the facility about medical problems he suffered due to the secondhand smoke, they were indifferent, according to the suit.

"Never once was it suggested that the Plaintiff be removed from the environmental tobacco smoke-saturated air or moved to a non- smoking environment," the lawsuit reads

Roberts seeks $1 million in damages. According to the suit, he was able to quit his habit of one to five cigarettes once he was transferred out of the Santa Fe County jail June 8, 2000.

A spokesman for Management and Training Corp., a Utah-based company that now runs the jail, said Monday that the company is not averse to banning smoking at the jail, if that is what the county wants. Smoking is allowed at the jail now because that is part of MTC's contract with the county, the spokesman said.

"We're contracted to operate the facility in the manner that the county wants to do things," said MTC spokesman Carl Stuart.

Maj. David Osuna, a spokesman for MTC at the Santa Fe County jail, has said that the jail "would not oppose" a smoking ban for health reasons.

The Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center has been smoke-free for inmates since the early 1990s, by county law.

Santa Fe County Attorney Stephen Ross said Monday that it is his understanding that the county is considering making the jail a smoke- free facility.

Greg Parrish, correctional services manager for the county, said Monday that an advisory committee is studying the issue of banning smoking at the jail but is not expected to make a recommendation to the County Commission on the issue until September.