Queensland announces plans to ban smoking in all jails from May 2014

Updated

The prison guards' union in Queensland fears outlawing tobacco in the state's jails could cause dangerous riots on the inside.

The Queensland Government has announced plans to ban all smoking in prisons from May and free nicotine patches will be given to inmates.

Smoking in cells was banned five years ago, but it is still allowed in designated smoking areas. The total ban will also affect prison guards.

About 80 per cent of inmates smoke, which is more than five times higher than other Queenslanders.

"This is just putting more fuel on the fire and we have a real concern there's going to be a crisis," said Together Union spokesman Michael Thomas.

"We saw in New Zealand where this happened there was a 180 per cent increase in assaults."

But Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says Corrective Services is well equipped to force inmates to butt out.

"Prisons are places where we deal with potentially flashpoint circumstances every single day of the week," he said.

"This is about public health. This is about making sure that we can reduce what is a huge and overwhelming number of prisoners smoke."

Inmates smoke 'to deal with stress'

A prisoners' support group says inmates smoke to deal with the pressure of jail time.

"Clearly it's a huge amount of stress that people are dealing with inside," Sisters Inside CEO Debbie Kilroy said.

"I think money needs to be spent on rehabilitation programs to reduce recidivism on release and not banning smoking.

"And if prisoners decide to give up smoking, like anyone else, I think they should have the option to do so."

Cancer Council Queensland supports the ban.

"We know that inmates may go in with the intention to quit but are unsuccessful," spokeswoman Katie Clift said.

"And there is a strong culture of smoking at the moment so it would be very easy for them to pick up the habit or to restart smoking."

The Northern Territory banned tobacco in jails in July, and New South Wales and Tasmania have committed to implementing the same policy in 2015.

Topics: health-policy, health, law-crime-and-justice, qld

First posted