Taxpayers to spend $744,000 help SA prisoners quit smoking as ban comes into jails

Taxpayers will spend $744,000 on counselling for prisoners, nicotine replacement patches and lozenges to help them stop smoking as a ban nears.

• Correctional staff prepare for potential riots as jails go smoke-free
• Adelaide Women’s Prison to go smoke free, ban in all jails by 2020

Taxpayers will spend $744,000 to provide South Australian prisoners with nicotine patches, lozenges and counselling to help them kick the habit.

The State Government has budgeted $1.6 million to implement a smoking ban in prisons.

The ban will start being phased in this year and will be completed by 2020.

Almost half of the funding will be used to help prisoners cope with the change, including a “holistic and co-ordinated health response’’ and “traditional healers” for indigenous inmates.

In comparison, $471,000 will go towards helping prison officers deal with angry inmates cut off from their addiction.

That money will be spent on “intelligence” gathering and “emergency response group’’ costs.

Another $375,000 will be spent on managing the ban. Prisons Minister Corey Wingard said 80 per cent of prisoners were smokers and every measure was being taken to avoid trouble.

“Other jurisdictions, such as Victoria in 2015, have experienced costly and dangerous prison riots during the implementation of such policies, so it is important to ensure the transition is completed as smoothly as possible for all prisoners and corrections staff,’’ he said.

“It’s imperative that the department provides adequate support to staff and prisoners in a high-risk environment where approximately 80 per cent of prisoners identify as a current smoker.’’

Opposition correctional services spokesman Lee Odenwalder did not oppose the ban but questioned the funding split.

“I’m surprised that so little has been set aside for guards managing the issue and security, as opposed to the therapy for the prisoners,’’ he said.

Public Service Association secretary Nev Kitchin said a clear time frame for nicotine replacement therapy should be established to ensure costs were not excessive.

“Prisoners who require additional nicotine replacement therapy would need to fund that themselves,” he said.

SA Health recommended the welfare of prisoners be an important part of the ban in a briefing which states: “The nicotine replacement program comprises a combination of nicotine patches and a fast-acting nicotine replacement product such as nicotine lozenges to allow prisoners to self-manage cravings and to provide them a degree of control over the smoking cessation process’’.