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PAGE 15 -PLAINDEALER- WEDNESDAY, |MAY 23, 1984 A thriving cigatette industry goes on behind Illinois bars -The Coach Homes of Waters Edge- McHenry's Newest Concept in attached Single-family living, Priced from just $53y900! Standard Features Include: •TWO FULL BATHS •SECURITY SYSTEM •ONE-CAR ATT. GARAGE -CENTRAL AIR COND •DISHWASHER •CARPETING FULLY •EASY CARE VINYL FLOOR -GARBAGE DISPOSAL •CONTINUOUS CLEAN GAS OVEN AND RANGE Iran from Fo> WIK Lofco n S WATIRSIDOI IN. 11® * M 1 B 1 n 1 Dartmoor S h h from Crystal lafco PLEASE CALL 385-8830 FOR AN APPOINTMENT j residential uevewpmeni Group, Inc 10.9%.. . FMANONC NOW AVAILABLE WITH 10% DOWN McHENRY BUILDERS 3716 W. PRESTWICK IN McHENRY (•is)385-4488 orai io-s, y bays By Debra Hale Associated Press CHESTER - They're called Southern Lights and Pyramids, taste and pretty much like any other cigarette and sell for the bargain price of about 35 cents a p a c k . B u t t h e y ' r e unlikely to ever be found in a grocery store or cigarette machine. The cigarettes are manufactured by in­ mates of the maximum- security Menard Cor­ rectional Center, which overlooks the Mississip­ pi River. "They're machine- rolled, filter-tipped, just l i k e d o w n t o w n , " b o a s t e d H o w a r d Skolnik, superintendent of Illinois Correctional Industries, who said he knew of no other prison in the country that m a n u f a c t u r e d cigarettes. Because the cigaret­ tes are exempt from state cigarette taxes, they can be sold only to state-funded prisons, county jails and state- funded mental health facilities. The institutions pay 33 cents a pack and then mark up the price 1 or 2 cents. Despite the low price, Menard's cigarettes are "packaged just like any other cigarettes, in­ cluding the warning from the surgeon general," Skolnik said. The Southern Lights, for example, are sold in blue packages display­ ing a picture of a tobac­ co farm. The Pyramids, named after Southern Illinois" Little Egypt region, display a desert scene on their red packages. Menthol cigarettes come in green packages. "We have our logo buried around the label -- just ICI -- Illinois C o r r e c t i o n a l I n ­ dustries," Skolnik said. "If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't see it." Illinois may try to sell the cigarettes to other states later and already has sent out some samples, Skolnik said. But right now, he said, "we're having trouble keeping up with the de­ mand just in our own state." In the first nine mon­ ths of this fiscal year, which began July 1, the s t a t e C o r r e c t i o n s Department sold 770,000 packs of the cigarettes to up to 25 state institu­ tions, Skolnick said. The cigarettes are made in a 5,000- to 7,500-square-foot brick- walled manufacturing shop, where 12 to 15 prisoners work. The in­ m a t e s , w h o s e p a y depends on their pro­ d u c t i o n , p r o b a b l y average $80 to $85 a month, plus up to two free packs of cigarettes per day, Skolnik said. T u r n o v e r i n t h e automated shop is low b e c a u s e m o s t o f M e n a r d ' s c i g a r e t t e makers are serving sentences for more serious crimes. The work requires more training than most prison jobs And Skolnik s a i d o f f i c i a l s " t r y t o f i n d inmates with a fairly long sentence to work in there, so that once they're trained, they stay for a while." He said officials hope to expand the cigarette manufacturing opera­ tions next year by up­ dating the equipment a n d i n c r e a s i n g capacity: » But even then, it wouldn't be financially f e a s i b l e t o s e l l t h e cigarettes to the public, Skolnick said. Although "they're every bit as good" as commercial brands, "there's always the stigma of being made by inmates," he said. He also said that even among prisoners, com­ mercial brands are pro­ bably more popular b e c a u s e o f " b r a n d loyalties." Judge has to decide custody fight between mother, sitter ,? • ,r j ; fdB l» of MILLCREEK A new, desjrable single-family area in Mchenry offering: EASY ACCESS TO ALL IN TOWN LOCATIONS 'NICE COUNTRY SETTING •2,3, or 4 BEDROOM HOMES AVAILABLE 'AFFORDABLE FINANCING COME SEE THE SIX STYLES PROM WHICH TO CHOOSE SINGLE FAMILY SCO nil ft 00 *59,900° Si from *65,900 from *72,900 (3 YR. A.R.M WITH 5% CAP.) | By the Associated Press DOVER, Del.-Bren- Ida D. Smith has been fighting for more than two years to get custody 'of her little boy, Daryl Smith, but she still doesn't have her child. Her former babysitter does. The Family Court judge who handled the case didn't accuse Mrs. Smith of neglecting or abusing her child. In­ stead the issue is 6-year- old Daryl'%jdependence, on the former babysit­ ter's family. The judge's original d e c i s i o n a w a r d i n g custody to the babysit­ ter has been appealed, reversed and sent back to him, but he recently decided to stick by his ruling. "I was very hurt," said Mrs. Smith, 26, of Christiana. "It was like reliving it almost all over again." Daryl was placed in the custody of Dorothy Marx and her husband James in February 1982 after they petitioned the court to become the child's guardians. Mrs. Marx, 47, of Bellefonte, met the Smiths when she was s e n t b y a p r i v a t e babysitting agency in 1978 to help care for the infant Daryl while his mother recuperated from an auto accident. Mrs. Marx has said that even after the full-time babysitting ended, Mrs. Smith continued to ask her to care for Daryl. But Mrs. Smith con­ tended Mrs. Marx would beg to take Daryl to her home. Mrs. Smith has consistently said that although she could not provide as much for Daryl as the Marxes, she could provide the m i n i m u m c a r e h e needs. Family Court Judge James Gallagher said in his 1982 ruling that Mrs. Smith and Gary Smith, who at the time was estranged from his wife, "failed to plan ade­ quately for Daryl's physical, mental and eip&tfo&il heeds, hfeaAttt and development." The Smiths have since divorced and Smith now lives in Elkton, Md. Mrs. Smith said her former husband sup­ ports her efforts to get custody of Daryl, even t h o u g h h e f i l e d a s e p a r a t e p e t i t i o n f o r custody. Gallagher didn't cite the Smiths for abuse or neglect but said Daryl had been raised by the Marxes to the point where he was dependent on them for his needs. That ruling was ap­ pealed, and Superior Court Judge Clarence W. Taylor reversed the decision in August 1983 and sent the case back t o G a l l a g h e r f o r reconsideration. Taylor's ruling in­ structed Gallagher to review the case and ap­ ply the state's legal definition of a "depen­ dent child," without comparing the Marxes to Mrs. Smith. Taylor said: "The dependency issue turns on the overall condition of the child and not upon an evaluation of one per­ son's effect on the child compared with some other person's effect ... The status of a depen­ dent child rests upon the totality of the care ... and other conditions from all sources affec­ ting the child and the d e t e r m i n a t i o n i s whether that totality has impaired or ... will impair the child's health and well-being." Carolyn Schlecker, Mrs. Smith's attorney, said she had understood Taylor's ruling to mean that another custody hearing would be held. But she said Gallagher instead accepted only w r i t t e n b r i e f s f r o m attorneys. "He did not consider any new evidence at all," Ms. Schlecker said. W h e n G a l l a g h e r issued his new decision in April, "we were quite s u r p r i s e d , " M s . Schlecker said. Mrs. Smith has ap­ p e a l e d G a l l a g h e r ' s latest ruling. "We feel it's the same decision he rendered before. We don't see any difference in it and that's one of the major reasons we're appeal­ ing," Ms. Schlecker said. "We argued that the law was not correct­ ly applied and Judge Taylor agreed with us. ( The disappointment for us is there will be a fur­ ther delay in Daryl be­ ing reunited with his mother and brother." M r s . S m i t h h a s another son, 10-year-old Phillip, who lives with her. " H e m i s s e s h i s brother. He's very ex­ cited when Daryl conies for the weekend," Mrs. Smith said, adding that she also has a good rela­ tionship with Daryl, even though her visits with him are limited. "He calls me 'Mom­ my.' He calls her Gran- m o m , ' " M r s . S m i t h s a i d . " H e ' s a l w a y s known who his mother is. I never was the disappearing mother in the corner and one of these days, everyone will know the truth and just what I've been through." The Marxes "have not been able to stop the bond of love between us," Mrs. Smith said. "No matter how much time she put between us, she couldn't do it ... What kills me the most. I think, is how she has g o t t e n a w a y w i t h i t f o r so long." Mrs. Marx, who has five adult children no longer living at home, said she was sorry Mrs. S m i t h a p p e a l e d t h e decision. "I think Daryl should be allowed to have the security he's entitled to -- to know that he has one home and that he's not going to be uprooted from that home," Mrs. Marx said. Mrs. Marx said she has kept Daryl abreast o f t h e p r o c e e d i n g s . When Gallagher issued his ruling in April, she said, "I told him we had won the decision and 1 told him he could be our .little boy, that he would live here." United States median age hits new high, census bureau says By the Associated Press W A S H I N G T O N - America is maturing. The nation's median age has reached its highest point ever, climbing to 30.6 years as of 1982, the Census Bureau reports in a new population profile. The median age -- meaning half the people are younger and half older -- had peaked at 30.3 years in 1952, then was lowered by the ar­ rival of the postwar Baby Boom generation. That huge influx of people is how moving in­ to the 35 to 44 age bracket and has begun pulling the national averages up instead of down, Census officials observed. The median age had climbed to 30 in 1980, up f r o m 2 7 a d e c a d e earlier. The 1952 peak in the median age occurred in the wake of nearly two decades of low birth rates during the Depres­ sion and World War II. Low birth rates were also recorded in the 1960s, resulting in a con­ tinued decline in school- age children today. But in the last few years a so-called "echo" has oc­ curred as baby boom children had babies of their own, with the result that the popula­ tion under age 5 is no longer declining, as had been the case prior to 1975. "From 1980 to 1982 the n u m b e r o f c h i l d r e n under 5 grew by 6.3 per­ cent," the report noted. Overall, the profile recorded 233,267,000 Americans as of Jan. 1. 1983, an increase of 6,206,000 since the na­ tional head count on April 1, 1980 The profile also found that "the proportion of the total black popula­ tion living in central cities declined for the f i r s t t i m e i n m a n y decades." In 1982. about 55 per­ cent of the nation's blacks lived in central cities, down from 59 per- c e n t i n 1 9 7 0 . T h e number of blacks living in suburbs jumped by 2.3 million between 1970 and 1980, the report said. More than half of women aged 20 through 24 remain single, the report also disclosed, up from 36 percent in 1970. And for men, the share aged 20 through 24 that h a v e n e v e r m a r r i e d grew from 55 percent to 72 percent in the same period. "While many of these men and women simply have postponed mar­ riage, the changes sug- gest that an increasing proportion may elect never to marry at all." the report commented.