Riots
August 2017 - Birmingham, England
On Twitter, a West Midlands based criminology lecturer claimed the prison's Wing A was "severely damaged" as inmates were heard chanting "we want burn" - which is prison slang for tobacco.[1]
August 2017 - Cumbria, England
Prisoners staged a nine-hour riot and caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage - after they were banned from smoking.
Inmates smashed sinks, flooded cells and destroyed TVs at the Category C HMP Haverigg as they became the latest prison to be subject to the smoking ban.[2]
June 2015 - Melbourne, Australia
Police armed with tear gas and water cannons were on Tuesday evening still attempting to contain a riot that broke out at a maximum security prison in Victoria earlier in the day, after prisoners became angered by the introduction of a smoking ban.[3]
Prison overcrowding and inadequate fencing contributed to Victoria's largest prison riot, which was sparked when a canteen ran out of tobacco ahead of the state-wide smoking ban, a review has found.[4]
References
- ↑ 'We want burn!' Rioting prisoners 'demand tobacco' at Birmingham prison with 'one wing lost' as anti-riot teams prepare to storm jail - Mirror
- ↑ Prison trashed in nine-hour riot after cigarette ban - and warders warn of more problems to come - Mirror
- ↑ Prisoners riot at Melbourne's Ravenhall remand centre over smoking ban - The Guardian
- ↑ Victoria prison riot sparked by tobacco shortage, compounded by overcrowding: report - The Age