Vaping an outlet for inmates

Prisoners who smoke are to be offered free vaping kits as Scotland’s jails prepare to go tobacco-free later this year, according to a story by Reevel Alderson for BBC Online.

The initiative, which will cost about £200,000, is part of a program to help inmates give up smoking.

Vaping kits will be issued from the start of November, before the ban comes into force at the end of the month.

For two months, the kits will be provided free of charge. They will then be sold at a discounted rate until April, after which prisoners will have to pay the normal price.

The Alderson story said it was believed that more than 70 percent of Scotland’s prison inmates smoked: a much higher rate than that within the general population. Among female inmates, the story said, the figure could be as high as 95 percent.

Smoking in enclosed public places was banned in Scotland in 2006, but the ban did not apply to prisons. Inmates have been permitted to smoke in their cells and some outside spaces.

But a year ago the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) announced plans to make prisons completely smoke-free.

The Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said it was right to offer some transitional help for inmates, but that the cost should also be considered. “This is a cost to the public purse at the end of the day, but they have time limited it,” he was quoted as saying.

“I think that has to be the right thing to do. To say we will help you transition off smoking, but after that the public shouldn’t be shelling out to help you transition away.”