£1,000 an ounce: How rocketing tobacco prices are sparking violence behind bars

The eye-wateringly expensive contraband in HMP Featherstone, Winson Green and other prisons has seen ever-more desperate smokers fight over tiny amounts of tobacco and rolling papers.

For generations tobacco was the main currency between inmates in prisons but new body scanners at jails are drastically cutting down the supply of contraband, sending prices through the roof.

A single sheet of Rizla can now be sold for £5 in prison while retailing in shops at 59p for a pack of 50. One prisoner even demanded £4 for a strike of a single match. Rolling tobacco costs £12.50 in Tesco but is worth more than £1,000 in prisons serving the region such as Featherstone, Brinsford and Oakwood near Wolverhampton.

The Prison Service did not dispute the figures and confirmed expensive contraband items cause strife between prisoners.

A Prison Service spokesman said: "Our security measures are making it harder than ever for gangs to smuggle contraband into prisons. We are investing a further £100 million in gate security and X-ray body scanners to clamp down even more on the items which fuel violence behind bars."

A recently released prisoner from Smethwick, who did not want to be named, told the Express and Star: "I've done time in Featherstone and Winson Green recently after keeping out of jail for a few years and I could not believe the price of tobacco in there.

"I thought I was hearing things when I was told £2,000 for an ounce of tobacco, smoking was always a way of life inside but now it's been banned it's nuts in there.

"I saw two grown men fighting over a match going out and the one man being unable to light his roll up which must have cost him £15. It is also easy to rack up debts when tobacco costs so much and debts are the biggest cause of attacks inside."

Government inspectors recently criticised the Brinsford Young Offenders Institution for being the most violent facility of its kind in the country as assaults between inmates continue to be a problem.

The former prisoner said: "Although tobacco is scarce in jails there is still some, so someone is buying an ounce of tobacco outside for £12.50 and soon as it gets behind bars its worth £1,000. But after selling it in smaller amounts he can make £4,000 profit. I spoke to one guy who reckoned he'd committed a crime to get back into prison so he could sell tobacco because he had a foolproof way of getting it in.

"One guy had some tobacco smuggled into Winson Green, which is hard enough, but whoever had bought it on the outside was such a cheapskate they brought dodgy cheap stuff for a fiver, so you had all these prisoners kicking off because they had spent loads of money on a roll up that tasted like dirt. That person who saved £7.50 by not buying tobacco at Tesco could have got their mate seriously injured, or killed. Violence is just a second away in jail."

He added: "It is so hard to get stuff smuggled in these days, after a visit you have to sit on a chair which lights up on the part of your body where you have hidden stuff."

Last year the Home Office installed 74 X-ray body scanners in every prison as part of a £100 million investment to increase security and cut crime behind bars. In the last 12 months the scanners prevented 10,000 items being smuggled into prison secreted inside inmates and visitors bodies. Confiscated contraband included drugs, tobacco, mobile phones, sim cards and weapons.

One prisoner at HMP Garth was caught with an iPhone, charging lead and a pack of tobacco in his bowel.

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: "Drugs and weapons wreak havoc behind bars and stop frontline staff from doing their crucial work to rehabilitate offenders and cut crime.

"Our new scanners help us keep out dangerous and illegal items from prison that means our staff can create a better environment to get offenders off drugs and into work – which is the key to reducing reoffending."

The Government banned smoking in prisons in phases throughout 2017 and 2018 and England is now the largest smoke-free prison estate in Western Europe.

However, the ban faced fierce opposition from prisoners, welfare groups and prison officers who were concerned violence would increase with inmates withdrawing from nicotine.

Female inmates in Staffordshire Women's Prison HMP Drake Hall, Eccleshall, rioted in May 2017 within days of being unable to buy tobacco.

An inmate said: "Within the first week of the shop stopping selling it there was a riot. Loads of prisoners refused to go back to their cells and it was mayhem.

"There were women screaming and shouting, sitting on the roofs of blocks. After it calmed down a lot of those involved were transferred, probably to prisons where they can smoke."

With prisons implementing bans at different times desperate smokers began trying to get transferred to higher category prisons by breaking rules, failing drug tests and even assaulting officers just to have a few weeks of fags.

Due to post-smoking ban violence in the US penal system some jails in America this year began reintroducing tobacco to make the prison population easier to control.

However, the prospect of the smoking ban in UK prisons being reversed is almost certain never to happen. The Prison Service believes the ban saves lives of those at Her Majesty's pleasure citing "smoking remains a leading cause of preventable death in the UK, killing about 78,000 people a year in England".