What's Your Opinion On Banning Smoking In Jail?

In Australia they have just banned smoking in jail, making tobacco contraband.

 

Good subject.

While I'm tempted to sit on the fence with this topic I'm going to say it's a negative thing to ban smoking in prisons.

Yes it's an addiction but it's probably the lesser of some addictions of people in prisons and it's legal.

I actually gave up smoking a long time ago but it grinds my gears a little bit how the government is making it so strict about where you can an can't smoke but still allowing it to be legal. If they want to get serious on this matter, why not ban it completely?!

 

I agree completely with secret thinker. It's not nearly as bad as other actual contraband they could be getting, and if they are legal, inmates should be allowed to have them. I also think it's a bit mean to take away their cigarettes. It's probably one of the few comforts they get in jail.

It reminds me of when they banned smoking in retirement homes and care facilities here. It's sort of a different issue but I thought that was horribly mean. It's too late for quitting to affect most people in retirements homes much, and many of them can't get outside on their own. And to put someone, who is unable to care for themselves and possibly has many other health conditions already, through withdrawal aswell sounds horrible to me.

 

I lost sympathy for tobacco smokers long ago.
Is it a complete ban or just where they can smoke?
The inmates forfeited their privileges whenever they committed whatever crime landed them in jail, and smoking is a PRIVILEGE, not a right, so fuck 'em.

banning it in retirement homes makes perfect sense. Should the other residents be subjected to inhaling the smoke from others, especially when there are certainly people in there with compromised health in the first place. If they can go outside and smoke, why subject others to it?
Smoking is a personal choice, being subjected to another person's smoke in enclosed area is NOT a matter of personal choice, so fuck them old farts who want to smoke as well, they can wheel themselves outside if they want to smoke.

not to mention the fact that tobacco smoke permeates an entire building and the smell DOES NOT go away.
it is a matter of common courtesy

and yes, I smoked cigs for about 15 years before finally being able to quit with help from those nicotine patches, and I still get cravings.
so don't think for a moment that I am not familiar with the power of nicotine addiction.

 

prison inmates can get drugs in prison with the right connections, so I'm pretty sure banning cigarettes wont actually cut down on smoking in prison. Cigarettes will just become more of a currency than they already are.

 

While smoking is not a healthy addiction it is also a difficult one to overcome under the best circumstances. Laws do not work, remember prohibition.

While I can understand not being able to smoke any where they please, I do support restricted areas where they are permitted to smoke.

Interesting article : http://publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/phlc-policybrief-tobaccobehindbars-adultcorrections-2012.pdf


As stated by Meliai, this creates other issues and problems.

 

Banning smoking in jails is a good idea because it's an unhealthy habit, which may eventually lead to the death of the smoker by cancer or other smoking related diseases. Obviously banning smoking will hopefully break the habit, because they wont have access to cigarettes.

The problem is that where you get a lot of people smoking together such as in prisons, you get a toxic build up of cigarette smoke in the air, which can be harmful to non smokers as well.

 

Therefore more inmates will require/seek psychiatric medications.. and the taxpayers fit the bill. With tobacco the inmates are responsible for their own.

 

I don't think it should be banned in jails unless it's banned everywhere else, and we'll wait a long time for that given the billions in revenues governments collect from tobacco taxation.

 

I no longer smoke nor am I in Jail so its hard for me to give an opinion based on how I feel about smoking there
But I think smokers ( when they are Smoking ) should be kept away from people that don't smoke , If that is possible in jail I don't know

 

have they banned ALL tobacco use or just smoking it?

 

its an enclosed environment. second hand smoke in the enclosed space puts correctional officers and other inmates at risk.

what about alcohol? should inmates ought to be able to buy a beer from commissary? What about liquor?

 

nobody told them to work there..
besides its often the correctional officers union that keeps tobacco at the facility..

 

what about the other inmates, they dont have a choice.

i doubt the health of inmates is the reason though .. just proposing one possible rational reason.

 

Good idea. Ban the smokes and install video cameras everywhere and televise on a internet site somewhere. Watch all of them go through withdrawals etc. be a right fucking laugh IMO.

 

theres another thread here with same subject and i still give the same answer as i did years ago


i believe that prison should segregate the smokers into a non smoking section....and the non smokers should be put in a seperate area where artificial cigarette smoke is piped in

 

ok well my answer is a bit different but mostly the same

found the old thread here >> http://www.hipforums.com/forum/topic/424589-should-prisoners-lose-thier-smoking-privileges/

 

an entire town tries to quit cold turkey....
one of the funniest movies ever made.....

https://youtu.be/ML9ZPDFC1TI

 

Great for a movie plot but I am not sure I would like to be in lock down with a whole lot of people who are in withdrawal.

 

that is what the cells and solitary confinement is for.