As the ACT government this week rolled out its comprehensive outlook for improving the health and welfare of its prisoners, one persistent problem within the Canberra prison system was curiously unaddressed in the document: smoking.
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The ACT and Western Australia are the only jurisdictions in Australia where smoking is still permitted inside prison walls.
The ACT Cancer Council says that tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in Australia.
Outside the chain link fences and razor wire of the maximum security Alexander Maconochie Centre, the ACT has the lowest smoking rate in the country at 9.5 per cent.
Yet inside Canberra's overcrowded jail, where the average occupancy rate fluctuates between 425 and 485 sentenced prisoners and remandees, a recent survey found that two thirds of the prison population are smokers.
Five long years ago, ACT Corrections Minister Shane Rattenbury said the government wanted to to eventually phase out smoking at Canberra's Alexander Maconochie Centre and had sought legal advice.
"But experiences in other states show that these changes shouldn't be rushed through," he said at the time.
"Before moving ahead with a total ban, we would need to actively offer support to detainees through quit programs and nicotine replacement."
In a statement, the government said it was its policy that the AMC transition to a smoke-free environment, and while it "wasn't a priority, significant preparatory work has been completed to support the planning for this to occur".
Other states and territories with much larger prison populations have been successful in banning smoking inside their prisons, but not without significant upheaval. In 2015, a smoking ban at Victoria's Ravenhall Remand Centre sparked a sustained riot which caused $10 million in damage.
Yet in scenes reminiscent of decades-old US lags and jailbirds buying favours with packets of cigarettes, tobacco is still used as a form of currency within the ACT system, ex-detainees have told The Canberra Times.
In his comprehensive report to the ACT Assembly late last year detailing the health of Canberra's prison system, the ACT's independent Inspector of Correctional Services Neil McAllister noted that under the jail's policy, smoking is prohibited in enclosed spaces, and officers can invoke disciplinary action.
However, discussions with former inmates and the Inspector's own report reveals the reality inside the jail is very different.
"The review team observed that this policy is not adhered to in practice," the Inspector's report stated.
"Detainees are permitted to smoke . . . in accommodation units, including cells."
This is direct contravention of the prison's 2005 "functional brief" which, framed well before construction of the facility even began, decreed that "smoking will not be permitted in cells and cottage rooms or in enclosed common areas".
"The objectives are to foster a healthy lifestyle, to protect staff and other prisoners and to avoid litigation," the brief stated.
Prisoners Aid (ACT) has the view that all detainees at the AMC have the right to live in a healthy environment.
"We are of the view that if implementing a no smoking ban at the AMC, we would encourage ACT Corrective Services to ensure that detainees are provided with adequate support," Prisoner's Aid president Dr Caroline Doyle said.
In a survey of detainees at Canberra's prison, 31 per cent said they would prefer to live in a non-smoking unit. Overcrowding at the prison, which has forced the sharing of cells, makes this largely unworkable although Corrective Services said it endeavoured to separate smokers and non-smokers where "practicable" .
To avoid smoking inside cells triggering smoke alarms, the inspection team found that the prison's smoke alarms were covered over by prisoners.
One of the Inspector's key recommendations arising from the healthy prisons' report was that "relevant policies and practices are changed to ensure that non-smokers are never compelled to share a cell with a smoker".
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"Detainees raised concerns about non-smokers being placed in a shared cell with detainees who do smoke," the Inspector's report stated.
"We observed that detainees are currently allowed to smoke in their cells and do so during lock-ins. As well as being significantly unpleasant for non-smokers (detainees and staff alike), this also subjects detainees and staff to health risks".
He added that it "should not be necessary to argue the 'health case' for a smoke-free prison environment, or to explain the obvious fire risks of smoking indoors and of detainees possessing cigarette lighters".
The Northern Territory was the first jurisdiction to ban smoking inside its prisons in 2013. Queensland followed a year later, with NSW, Tasmania and Victoria enacting their bans in 2015.
