So. Let’s ban smoking in prisons.
Simple, innit? As ever with all things prison, it’s far more complicated.
Somehow these complexities are overlooked.
The sole reason I can uncover for this
policy is Health and Safety – the Prison Officers Association are complaining
about the foul air their members must inhale while in cells. Which are the only
places in prison where smoking remains permitted – even smoking in the open air
is usually prohibited (giving the lie to the health and safety rationale).
However, when the national smoking ban
was introduced several years ago, and smoking was restricted to cells in
prison, procedures were put in place to address this concern. Staff were meant
to give a heads-up shout to prisoners as staff were conducting daily
cell-checks, so that prisoners could air out the cells. Just to be very clear
on this point: procedures were put in place to address staff safety, but staff
have never used these procedures. There is no need for any member of staff to
enter a smoky cell – unless they allow it to happen. And they do. And in the
face of this lazy whine, a total ban on smoking in prisons is planned.
Unlike tobacco in the wider society,
tobacco in prison plays a huge role in prisoners’ lives. Tobacco isn't merely a
diversion. It is the default prisoner currency, the standard unit of trade that
all other commodities are valued against. As such, banning it would have the
same social effects as if Government suddenly banned the cash in your wallet or
purse. Sans tobacco, some other substance will become the default currency and
the only candidate is heroin.
There will, of course, be bits of
tobacco smuggled in. Realistically, though, tobacco is bulky and not very
smuggle-able. Especially when compared to the size and value of heroin. And the
main channel of getting tobacco from one side of the wall to the other will
invariably be prison staff – the very group that the Prison Service prefers to
think of as whiter than white.
With the current medium of exchange
prohibited, waves of disruption will flow through the social structure. Those
who "baroned" tobacco – burn, snout – will be worthless, their
ability to calm a stressed prison gone. In their place will rise, to a more
embedded level than currently, those who deal in the "powders". But
tobacco barons have always been a stabiliser, a bank, a bureaux de change, will
the flow of tobacco being largely consistent. Heroin, in contrast, leads to
some prisoners wielding undue influence – "powder power" – but
inconsistently. Supplies of drugs are far more uncertain and temporary, leaving
the suppliers in a shaky socioeconomic position and as such as likely to prompt
instability as anything else.
Tobacco is also used by the Prison
Service as an intelligence tool. Every Wing Manager has traditionally had a few
packets of tobacco to hand, to dish out to the passing casual informers. This
will now end. On a wider scale, by tracking tobacco purchases from the prison
shop – the "canteen" – managers have been able to discern economic
activity. This activity is often tied to broader prisoner activities and can
highlight the wheelers and dealers. A non-smoker buying lots of tobacco is
obviously "up to something"! Whether this oversight of prisoners’
economic activity has ever led to more substantial intelligence is unknown;
what is known is that this source of intelligence will now cease.
The practicalities of the ban are yet
to be made known, probably to be developed as this policy is rolled out. It
begins in Wales early next year. Whatever details are developed, all have to
face the reality that nicotine is one of the most addictive of substances and
prison is the last bastion of smokers. And 50,000 smokers deprived of their fix
will be a fearsome thing.
Obviously, the Healthcare departments
of each prison (now NHS run) should be stocking up on Nicotine Replacement
Therapies, such as patches. The problem with all of these poor substitutes is
that they have success rates lower than a rugby player with a lion on his
shirt. As for E-cigarettes; these would be a perfect medium. Alas, E-cigs
require chargers, which can also be used to charge illegal mobile phones. How
the Prison Service faces this challenge will be interesting. What will be
offered medically will be risible and not cull the cravings of the masses.
Banning tobacco, then, will have the
key consequences of instantly dismantling economic structures which have stood
for decades; will destabilise the social structure; reduce intelligence; tempt
staff to smuggle; and throw social power into the corrosive and unstable hands
of heroin dealers.
I can't think of a more damaging policy.
