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Four-fifths of the 246 inmates admitted to La Moye last year were smokers, the latest Smoking Profile has revealed.
Earlier this month, La Moye announced plans to become completely "smoke-free" by the end of the year, following a statement on how e-cigarettes should be used by local health professionals.
Five years ago, all staff were banned from smoking inside the prison's secure perimeter while prisoners were restricted to smoking in individual cells or in the open air exercise yards. The prison is now seeking to be completely smoke-free and prisoners will receive more support to stop smoking ahead of the "smoke-free" date. They will also have access to e-cigarettes to help them stop smoking.
Home Affairs Minister Deputy Kristina Moore said: “Further to the recent releases of the public health consensus statement on the use of e-cigarettes, we will also be permitting the sale of ‘prison safe’ e-cigarette devices to prisoners to ensure they have similar access as the general public to products that, for smokers, are less harmful than smoking tobacco on their journey to stopping smoking altogether.”
Pictured: E-cigarettes will now be regarded as an acceptable choice for prisoners who wish to stop smoking.
According to the Jersey Opinion and Lifestyle Survey, around 4% of the population are using e-cigarettes at least sometimes, while the majority of Islanders, 84% have never used them.
According to the latest Smoking profile, 1 in 6 deaths in 2016 were estimated to be directly attributable to smoking. 41% of deaths due to respiratory diseases and 27% of all cancer deaths were attributable to smoking.
In addition, there were estimated to be around 820 hospital admissions, 3% of all admissions, were attributable to smoking. A majority of those admissions were for respiratory diseases.
Pictured: 140 deaths in 2016 were attributable to smoking.
Dr. Linda Diggle, head of preventive services, added: “A smoke free prison environment will be a good opportunity for prisoners to improve their health and get support for stopping smoking for good. Stop smoking nurse specialists have been running stop smoking group sessions in prison working to reduce the high rate of smoking amongst prisoners.
"Success so far has been above what would have expected, that is, 40% of the prisoners were validated as quit by carbon monoxide monitoring at four weeks and an additional 20% also went on to stop smoking completely. Our specialist stop smoking nurses will be working alongside prison staff to provide ongoing support for prisoners to stop smoking both in the run up to going smoke free as well as once the new policy is in place in 2019.”
The latest Smoking Profile also revealed that the proportion of adults smoking is still decreasing, having fallen from 19% to 16% last year. Only one in ten smokers reported smoking daily, the lowest proportion of daily smokers ever recorded.
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