COMMENTARY

Smoking in prisons

Should smoking be banned in prisons?

T Butler¹, R Richmond², J Belcher³, K Wilhelm⁴, A Wodak⁴

¹ National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
² School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia
³ Centre for Health Research in Criminal Justice (Justice Health NSW), Australia
⁴ St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr T Butler
National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845, Western Australia; tbutler2@optusnet.com.au

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Consequences and effectiveness

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Keywords: prisons; smoking cessation; smoking bans

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Tobacco smoking is an integral part of prison life and an established part of the prison culture. Tobacco serves a range of functions in prison: as a surrogate currency, a means of social control, as a symbol of freedom in a group with few rights and privileges, a stress reliever and as a social lubricant.

Smoking bans in prison have gained favour in recent times, particularly in North America.^1–3 Fear of legal action by non-smoking prison staff and other inmates appears to be the main driver rather than public health concerns. Prisons are some of the few places in the Western world where smoking is still allowed in enclosed spaces. More recently, however, moves have been made to bring prisons in line with other public institutions through the use of partial or total smoking bans.

While tobacco control strategies have successfully reduced smoking in the general community . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Richmond, R, Butler, T, Wilhelm, K, Wodak, A, Cunningham, M, Anderson, I (2009). Tobacco in prisons: a focus group study. Tobacco Control 18: 176-182 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kauffman, R M, Ferketich, A K, Wewers, M E (2008). Tobacco policy in American prisons, 2007. Tobacco Control 17: 357-360 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Proescholdbell, S K, Foley, K L, Johnson, J, Malek, S H (2008). Indoor air quality in prisons before and after implementation of a smoking ban law. Tobacco Control 17: 123-127 [Abstract] [Full Text]  

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