Is This Ban On Smoking Six Years Too Late?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287267/Riot-fears-cigarettes-set-banned-prisons-England-Wales-amid-compensation.html

[emmie]

i must admit you make it sound as though prisoners are in lockdown 23 hours out of 24 that can't be the case in most prisons surely, this isn't the USA. And if mental health patients have had to put up with smoking outside, which they do, then can't see what is wrong with that for prisoners.

[nailit]

// ronnie.....they will probably not be allowed access to their ciggies until outside. as someone who polices smoking in an institution.....it's really not that difficult. //

As someone who has recently been in a mental institution...and have had to smoke outside, and someone who has been to prison (and is looking at another prison sentence) the difference between the two institutions is vast.
There is no way that you can let prisoners out all times of the day for a ciggy. They only get one hour a day outside as it is (if therye lucky and weather providing.

[lcg]

1. prison routine/staffing may have to be adjusted to allow smoking - i have to operate on a once an hour for ten minutes routine and supervise up to 20/50 people who smoke. for the last time, it is not hard.
2. if it's raining, then they will get wet. that what happens when you are outside in the rain.
3. if people can't smoke for whatever reason, then it's tough. i challenge you to find any evidence of a prison riot because of smoking. because there isn't any.......
4. if that doesn't work, then a blanket ban may be introduced....which again has never been documented as causing a riot.

[lcg]

but as nailit says.....prisoners only get out once a day.....if that is the only time they can smoke, then that will be it. but no riots......that is just fantasy.

[nailit]

ive seen people get hurt inside prison for drugs, itll be the same for ciggs.

[ummmm]

Em - many prisons have 23 hour lock ups.

[Baldric]

Are prisons going to become like pubs with all the smokers huddled outside the front door on the pavement?

[emmie]

outside in the open air, as opposed to outside the cell, because the way ronnie was describing it sounded positively draconian.

[lcg]

i've seen that in the psych ward where i work too, nailit. but having a fight about a cigarette or mugging someone for one is different to a full blown riot. i have to say, sometimes it is like working with children around smoking......

[nailit]

can someone answer me, just what is the problem with cons smoking in their cells? Prison staff arnt inhaling it

[Myriad2112]

I'm reliably informed that MP's can smoke in the bar at the house of commons, once again it's just us normal, middle England people that can't do as we wish.
I don't smoke by the way, I just object to Governments telling me what's good for me.

[lcg]

yes they are.....and other prisoners who don't smoke. smoke goes a long way, you know.

[tonyav]

No problem as far as I'm concerned nailit.

[nailit]

A non smoking con can request to share a cell with another non smoker

[Ronnie10]

1. prison routine/staffing may have to be adjusted to allow smoking - i have to operate on a once an hour for ten minutes routine and supervise up to 20/50 people who smoke. for the last time, it is not hard.- Funds and safety/security issues will not allow it.

2. if it's raining, then they will get wet. that what happens when you are outside in the rain.-Prisoners don't go out when it's raining heavily.

3. if people can't smoke for whatever reason, then it's tough. i challenge you to find any evidence of a prison riot because of smoking. because there isn't any....... Well how could you when the ban hasn't happened yet?

4. if that doesn't work, then a blanket ban may be introduced....which again has never been documented as causing a riot. Again it hasn't happened before so the proof will be in the pudding when it does finally happen.

[nailit]

Last time I was in prison we usually had the windows open when having a cigg. It does NOT permeate the wing you are on.

[lcg]

that may be the ideal, nailit, but there will be more pressing matters for the staff to deal with than who bunks with who. if people smoke in a building, then others are exposed to it. it really is very simple.

[emmie]

just be pleased you are not in prison then.

[lcg]

ronnie.....many countries do not allow prisoners to smoke - and you can search for your imaginary riots there. can you not use your imagination a little more? 'funds will not allow it' - what, labelling packets of fags with a marker pen, dishing them out when they are already outside, and having a n automatic lighter attached to a wall instead of matches/lighters? it doesn't cost the prison anything apart from the lighter.

[nailit]

lcg, ive spent a lot of time on prison wings. Trust me, they are not permeated with cigarette smoke. (locked in a cell behind a foot thick iron door, with the window open...the landings have no chance to become polluted)