“This decision represents a long overdue recognition by the Government of its legal obligation to protect the health of both non-smoking prisoners and prison staff by ensuring that they can live and work in a healthy environment”. It spells the end of the “tobacco barons” operating inside the jails and finally ends the day when “snout” was the traditional currency behind bars.
Advertisement
The national policy now allows prisoners to smoke in their cells but not communal areas.
For caravanners, the legislation bans lighting up in a caravan or motorhome only if it is moving, therefore smoking once hitched up should not be an issue.
The officers’ exposure to smoke was “at times significant” – for example, in Cardiff prison staff were exposed to levels of secondary smoke for more than three quarters of their shift. However, if driving in your towcar, you can be fined while the auto isn’t in motion if you’re smoking with children in the vehicle.
There are a few exceptions: the law will not apply to e-cigarettes; 17-year-olds will not be fined if they are smoking in a vehicle on their own; and the law does not apply to smoking in a convertible with the roof down.
And from next month, smoking will be barred in the interior of all “open” prisons in England and Wales.
Every jail in England and Wales will have to provide a “voluntary smoke free” area, which could include wings in which smoking is banned, from early next year.
It’s thought as much as 80% of the prison population smoke.
“The operational safety and security of our prisons will always be our top priority”.
Smoke in cars is up to 11 times more concentrated than even in a smoky bar; today’s move will bring huge benefit to the health of children in England and Wales’.
Prisons across Canada and New Zealand, and parts of Australia are already smoke free.
“We have no plans to move to smoke-free prisons overnight and will only do so in a phased way that takes into account operational resilience and readiness of each prison”.
Advertisement
Peter Dawson, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust said prisoners should still be allowed to smoke outdoors. “If that is to be denied to them, 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”.
