Why Is The Whole Uk Not Moving To Smoke Free Prisons?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-40623320
Well done Scotland for taking the lead.

[albaqwerty]

nah, it's not a typo 3T.
I reckon it's the red underlining of spelling English words on this site to make folk think they have made an error in their spelling when we haven't

[Mamyalynne]

My spellchecker is set to the right language.

Anyway, if this matter was simple it wouldn't have taken years to get to this stage - those who work in the system know what the outcome could be ,hence the caution and delay in introducing a ban.

I hope it goes smoothly for those affected.

[ToraToraTora]

it is simple. For too long we've been pussy footing around the scum. They should not have drugs, mobiles etc. Easily prevented but they just prefer not to. They could/should run them like the zoos they are.

[Mamyalynne]

They should run them like zoos should they?


What type of people will be released at the end of their sentence then , or haven't you thought that far ahead?


Re illicit drugs I have already agreed on that.

[albaqwerty]

the problem with that, as will have been mentioned no doubt, is it's the warders who are in the front line of any trouble-making.

[ToraToraTora]

traditional system mamy, you know when they've done less than half their sentence we release than back on to the unsuspecting public and wait for them to return. usual stuff.

[david small]

If you want to smokie, don't do crime, or you'll end up in the pokie. They forfeit their rights as citizens when they do the dirty. We are way too lenient with criminals.

[nailit]

//Well done Scotland for taking the lead//
Bit behind the times there 3T, the smoking ban in UK jails started in Wales and is been rolled out across the UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/05/high-security-prisons-alert-telling-inmates-must-give-smoking/

If prisons struggle to prevent drugs and mobiles getting into clink then they arnt going to stop cigs either. All that this ban is going to do is make an even bigger market for contraband inside along with its associated violence and extortion for those both buying and dealing. Prisons are dangerous enough (for both inmates and screws) without banning something that is perfectly legal...and often times calming to people banged up all day.
This has NOT been thought through.

[EDDIE51]

Hi Nalit , I've seen this but thought it had been dropped.
What's going to happen about Snout being used as prison currency?
Every thing in a prison has it's price in tobacco ! When I worked there the price for a haircut ( with real scissors) was 1/2 ounce.
A 'head shave ' with a razor was 1/4 ounce.
I suppose Mars bars will become the 'official currency'?

[nailit]

EDDIE, my sons mate is currently in HMP Oakwood. There seems to be a shortage of tv sets there and he recently traded 1/2 ounce of burn (snout really is old school., lol) with another con for his tv....
Phone cards used to be a popular trading commodity as well but that seems to have stopped now as everything is now digitalised/computerised.

[ummmm]

My mates in prison. Sentenced to 16 years!! He posts on facebook daily from his mobile. Having a cig is not going to be a problem!

I worked in a psych hospital who tried to bring in the smoking ban. It didn't last long.

[EDDIE51]

Thanks for the update Nalit, it was back in the early 1990s I worked in an open jail. Even non smokers needed tobacco then as it was the currency. You could buy single cigarettes in a jail then, some prisoners only had enough canteen credit to buy 2 or 3 individual cigs a week! Mobile phones were few and far between even 'on the out'.
I saw a program about jail visits on TV last week and all the visitors were buying large numbers of Mars bars at the shop in the visitor area, which took cash like a normal shop, and handing them to the inmates they were visiting. Apparently that is allowed. It made me wonder if Mars bars are taking the place of snout / burn.

[nailit]

EDDIE, cons can eat as much as they want if relatives buy it from the visiting room shop but they arnt allowed to take any of it out or back to their cells. When I was on a visit I got friends/relatives to buy me crisps, choclate, coffee etc and stuffed myself. It was often the only edible food I ate while inside...

[nailit]

//I worked in a psych hospital who tried to bring in the smoking ban. It didn't last long.//
ummmm, had the very same thing here in Stoke of year or so back.

[EDDIE51]

The prisoners on the TV program were taking the Mars bars ,crisps etc back to their cells, some had 10 or more that the visitors had bought.
But it was a TV program about one of the new privately run jails, rules may be different in other nicks. Visiting time was only an hour, how many Mars bars can you down in 60 minutes and talk to your visitors?

[ummmm]

Nailit...the staff used to be able to smoke with the patients at smoking time. When they tried the ban it was mayhem. Closed ward with lots of angry people. The non smokers were at the the receiving end of the smokers anger and frustration.

They ended up letting them smoke again and just kept it to a staff ban. Still needed two staff in the smoking room though!!

[EDDIE51]

The food at North Sea Camp where I worked was very good, staff got to eat the same food as the cons. But that jail had a prison farm with over 650 pigs. They rear the pigs and sell the meat to other jails.
I knew the head chef and he said that the cash from the pork sales meant he had a much higher food budget than other jails. As prison labour is free, the profit from the pork sales must have been large, which is why they could only sell it to other Prisons at under normal market price, thus helping the entire prison system.

[ToraToraTora]

wow this thread has turned into an episode of porridge! "Eddie stanley Fletcher, you are an habitual criminal who treats arrest as an occupational hazard....."

[nailit]

//wow this thread has turned into an episode of porridge!//
You started it 3T ;-)

// how many Mars bars can you down in 60 minutes and talk to your visitors?//
Youd be surprised EDDIE....
Been allowed to take food stuffs back to the wings is a new one on me, but ive never been in a private nick before.

[EDDIE51]

^ You have always ,as far as I know anyway, been allowed to buy sweets etc from your canteen credit and eat them in your cell.Plus people on the outside can or at least could put up to £30 a week into an inmate's canteen credit, by sending money C/O the governor.