The decision to ban smoking in all prisons in Wales and four prisons in England from January 2016 by the prisons minister, Andrew Selous, reminds me of the lengths to which some people in jail will go just to get a smoke.
Begging, borrowing and stealing are the usual methods for those with limited means. Some plum jobs may also provide a supply. A man I knew once in a high-security prison begged staff incessantly to give him the job of picking up the litter fellow prisoners routinely flung out of their cell windows. As there was no in-cell sanitary provision, the majority of the ejected detritus consisted of “shit parcels” – excrement prodded into socks, stuffed in jam jars or matchboxes, or wrapped neatly in newspapers. The perk for whoever volunteered to pick up the human waste was the rich pickings of discarded cigarette butts.
“Dog-end Dave” would poke about happily until his barrow was full of faeces and his pockets were full of smokables. As a non-smoking prisoner, I could never understand what would drive anyone to lower themselves to such depths just for a fix of nicotine.
But the stresses and strains of incarceration have to be experienced to be appreciated. Instances of prisoners smoking shredded banana skin or orange peel, or pages of the Bible, were not uncommon. Being crammed together with many hundreds of strangers with varying levels of dysfunction while trying to figure out your own failings creates a particular brand of desperation that can feel like hell on earth. I guess a smoke for some, at whatever cost, must just bring a little comfort and some much-needed relief.
I used to wonder what effect passive smoking might have on my health. But so long as I never had to share a cell with a smoker, I never begrudged tobacco lovers their vice.
There has been talk of riots in our prisons if smoking is banned across the entire system. That never happened in the Isle of Man prison, where smoking was banned in 2008, or Guernsey, where it was banned in 2013. But in fairness, the justice secretary Michael Gove has stated that people are sent to prison “as punishment, not for punishment.” It does seem inherently punitive to deny prisoners one of the smallest freedoms left on a wing or a landing or in a cell. The Prison Reform Trust is calling for “proper support while people give up – not just smoking cessation aids, but increased vigilance for signs of distress that could easily turn into self-harm or worse”. I agree. Anything less would be inhumane.