The Scotsman

Prisons to be smoke free by the end of 2018

Cells anomaly had to be removed but inmates should still be allowed to smoke outside if open area available

- By CHRIS GREEN

Scotland’s prisons will be smoke free by the end of next year.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) yesterday announced plans to stop tobacco sales and ban smoking entirely in all jails by 2018.

Prison reform groups warned the ban could cause violence and lead to an illicit trade in tobacco.

But the SPS insisted the move was vital to remove the “unacceptab­ly high risk” of prisoners, staff and visitors being exposed to second-hand smoke.

Scotland banned smoking in all enclosed public places in 2006.

But the policy did not include prisons.

Smoking is to be banned in all Scottish jails by the end of next year due to the “unacceptab­ly high risk” of prisoners, staff and visitors being exposed to second-hand smoke.

Tobacco sales will be stopped in all prisons and rules changed to ban smoking entirely by the end of 2018, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) announced yesterday.

The decision is likely to prove very controvers­ial among inmates, who are more likely than the general population to be smokers. Some are heavily reliant on cigarettes.

Prison reform groups expressed fears that a total ban was disproport­ionate, claiming that stopping inmates from smoking could cause violence and may lead to an illicit trade.

The SPS said it would be working with a wide range of other organisati­ons to help as many prisoners as possible give up smoking before the ban is introduced.

Scotland banned smoking in all enclosed public places in 2006, but the policy did not include prisons, where it is currently permitted inside cells and in some outside spaces.

The SPS said existing measures – such as forcing prisoners to close their cell doors whenever they light a cigarette – had not proved to be effective enough in reducing second-hand smoke. The prison service announced the clampdown as it published what it described as “the most comprehens­ive study in the world” of prison workers’ exposure to secondhand smoke.

The tobacco in prisons study (TIPS) found that around two thirds of non-smoking prison staff are regularly exposed to smoke during their shifts.

A typical prison worker is exposed to levels of secondhand smoke broadly similar to those experience­d by someone living with a smoker in Scotland, researcher­s said.

The study, led by the University of Glasgow with input from the University of Aberdeen, was published in the Annals of Work Exposure and Health journal.

Researcher­s were able to estimate the exposure of prison staff to second-hand smoke in all 15 prisons in Scotland by using air particle monitors and nicotine sensors.

“It is not acceptable that those in our care and those who work in our prisons should be exposed to second hand smoke,” said Colin Mcconnell, chief execu- tive of the SPS. However, prosmoking group Forest warned that banning smoking in jails “risks inflaming a tense and sometimes violent environmen­t”.

“The risks of second-hand smoke have been greatly exaggerate­d,” said the group’s director Simon Clark. Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “A sensible and considered approach to smoking in prisons would leave prisoners with a choice - at least to smoke outside.

“If this is not part of the Scottish Government’s plans, there has to be proper support while people give up - not just smoking cessation aids, but increased vigilance for signs of distress that could easily turn into self harm or worse.”

The definition of what constitute­s an “enclosed space” was much debated when the Scottish Government first proposed a smoking ban over ten years ago. Were bus shelters affected, for instance? It turned out that anyone waiting for the No6 service to the High Street was in a no-smoking zone if the shelter was “wholly or substantia­lly enclosed”.

However, different rules were applied in prisons, where smoking was still permitted in cells and in certain outdoor spaces.

There was no real justificat­ion for allowing smoking to continue inside cells, and the suspicion has always been that the exception was made simply because of the possible repercussi­ons within prisons if inmates were denied one of the few rights – or ‘pleasures’ – they have while in custody.

But smoking was banned in enclosed places to protect nonsmokers from the dangers of passive smoking, and it is incoherent to roll out such a policy across the country while continuing to expose prison staff to second-hand smoke.

When the general public is bound by a restrictio­n which remains a liberty for the incarcerat­ed, something has gone wrong.

It is possible there will be a backlash against the ending of smoking in cells, but the position cannot be maintained out of fear over what might or might not happen.

Where the prison service does face a serious challenge, however, is with the blanket ban on smoking which is to be put in place by November 2018. This will make a prison sentence much harder to serve for the estimated three-quarters of inmates who smoke, because it will force them to break with a long-term habit, or an addiction. One of the main purposes of prison, besides being a method of punishment, is to rehabilita­te an offender, and if that person suffers withdrawal symptoms, then he or she is less likely to respond positively to a rehabilita­tion programme.

It would seem more practical, and consistent, to allow prisoners to continue to smoke in an outside space, if such an area can be identified within the boundary of the prison. This does not mean that prisoners would be able to have a cigarette when they feel like it. Instead, there could be a designated time of the day when the existing practice of smoking outside is still permitted.

The smoking ban of 2006 has undoubtedl­y made public places more bearable for non-smokers, and the Scottish Government’s aim of a “tobacco-free generation” by 2034 is laudable, but an outright ban in prisons is unnecessar­y, and possibly unhelpful, at this stage.

 ??  ?? 0 Tobacco sales will be stopped in prisons and a ban imposed by the end of 2018
0 Tobacco sales will be stopped in prisons and a ban imposed by the end of 2018

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