Prison smoking ban study: prisoners light up soon after release from jail
THE vast majority of prisoners banned from smoking in jail light up within days or weeks of being released, a new study shows.
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THE vast majority of prisoners banned from smoking in jail light up within days or weeks of being released, a new study shows.
Three months after smoking was outlawed in Victorian jails — sparking a riot at the Metropolitan Remand Centre — a report has found up to 63 per cent of prisoners resumed smoking on their first day of freedom.
And six months after release, 97 per cent of ex-inmates had relapsed.
The report, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, analysed several US studies on the smoking rates of prisoners from jails with smoking bans.
“Total smoking bans alone have been ineffective in reducing smoking rates in this population,” wrote authors Prof Tony Butler and Dr Lorraine Yap, from Sydney’s Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society.
One study found 84 per cent of ex-prisoners were smoking again within three weeks of release.
The authors said black markets were a common problem in jails that had banned smoking, however Melbourne’s jail riot was unusual.
“There was little or no evidence of increased violence following the implementation of smoke-free policies in US jails and prisons,” the report said.
The riot at the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall, which broke out on the eve of
the July 1 smoking ban, caused more than $25 million worth of damage.
Anecdotal reports suggest the going rate for a single cigarette packet within the MRC is
now as high as $1000 — up from $70-$80 before the ban.
Victorian prisoners were offered nicotine replacement therapy for 12 weeks after the ban —
which expired late last month — as well as a quit program.
The MJA report found the rate of smoking within the prison community was 84 per cent,
compared to 13 per cent in the general community.
“This population is in need of interventions both inside prison and after their release to
reduce their high rate of tobacco smoking,” the authors concluded.