Jump to full article: AAP (Australian Associated Press) (au), 2010-07-27
Author: [item undated]
Intro: Prison officer Steve Burrows has vivid recollections of when they tried to ban smoking inside Brisbane's rebuilt Woodford Correctional Centre.
"That didn't work, that jail burnt down. It was severely damaged by rioting and fire."
The inmates' outrage when one of their liberties was threatened back in 1997 might preface the reaction when New Zealand's penal institutions become smoke-free from July 2011.
The New Zealand Government's policy, announced last week by Corrections Minister Judith Collins, goes further than current Australian legislation - no prisons are totally smoke-free.
Burnt by the Brisbane riot, Queensland's corrections department allows prisoners to smoke in designated areas, ditto Western Australia. In South Australia smoking in cells is permissible.
Each state has its own smoking reduction policy for prisons, the intention being to ultimately stub the habit out altogether.
A national summit on tobacco smoking in prisons will be held in Canberra next month in a bid to formulate an Australia-wide strategy.
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