Public Service Association urges Government to fast-track smoking ban in South Australian prisons
PRISON guards who are “sick and tired” of being exposed to second-hand smoke are threatening industrial action if the State Government does not fast-track plans to ban cigarettes in jails.
PRISON guards who are “sick and tired” of being exposed to second-hand smoke are threatening industrial action if the State Government does not fast-track plans to ban cigarettes in jails.
The union representing the guards lodged a dispute this week in the Industrial Relations Commission and is calling on new Corrections Minister Chris Picton to release a time frame to impose a full ban.
The Corrections Department told The Advertiser it has prepared a new plan for the minister, but would not reveal any details.
South Australia is the only Australian jurisdiction which is yet to ban smoking in its prisons.
Public Service Association general secretary Nev Kitchin said the Government had policies in place which prohibited smoking in public places and inside and near to government buildings, but prison workers were not protected.
Mr Kitchin was particularly concerned about staff or inmates who may be pregnant.
“Our members should not be required to work in a smoke-filled workplace which unnecessarily risks their health. Their job is risky enough already,” he said.
The Adelaide Remand Centre has been smoke-free for about 18 months, as part of a trial, and Corrections Department chief executive David Brown said there were “no plans to change” that policy.
However, he conceded that the remand centre was the “sole” site identified in a 2015-2017 smoking reduction action plan.
“A new plan has been provided to the new minister for his consideration,” Mr Brown said.
Mr Picton took over the Corrections portfolio as part of a Cabinet reshuffle earlier in the week. His predecessor, Peter Malinauskas, is now Health Minister.
A smoking ban imposed by the Victorian Government in 2015 sparked dangerous rioting by hundreds of prisoners at a Melbourne maximum security jail.
That same year, New South Wales jails went smoke-free and prisoners were provided with nicotine patches.
Mr Kitchin said SA inmates should also receive support to quit smoking.
Mr Brown said people being held on remand were given nicotine patches, but he did not reveal the cost to taxpayers.
He said no further money had been budgeted for quit-smoking aids but “options are still being considered”.
A new unit at the Adelaide Women’s Prison is due to open soon. Mr Kitchin said staff would not oversee prisoners in the new unit “unless it opens as smoke-free”.
Mr Brown said smoking would be banned inside the unit but allowed outdoors.