A survey undertaken by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found that criminals entering Queensland prisons are three times more likely to be smokers than the rest of the population.
The revelation emerged from the National Prisoner Health Census last year, which quizzed Australian prisoners on their wellbeing. It found that a whopping 82% of Queensland's prison inmates are smokers, compared to the (still surprisingly high) 23% of the Australian public who regularly light up, according to a Brisbane Times report.
It's not just smokers who are over-represented in the Queensland prison population. According to an AIHW spokesman, more than half admitted binge drinking and 69% said they had used illegal drugs in the previous 12 months, with over half admitting to injecting drugs. And health problems such as asthma, cardiovasular disease and diabetes were also discovered to be more common.
Australian prisons may have to follow the example set by their New Zealand counterparts and force inmates to swap cigarettes for healthy carrot sticks instead.
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The revelation emerged from the National Prisoner Health Census last year, which quizzed Australian prisoners on their wellbeing. It found that a whopping 82% of Queensland's prison inmates are smokers, compared to the (still surprisingly high) 23% of the Australian public who regularly light up, according to a Brisbane Times report.
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82% of Queensland prisoners yesterday |
It's not just smokers who are over-represented in the Queensland prison population. According to an AIHW spokesman, more than half admitted binge drinking and 69% said they had used illegal drugs in the previous 12 months, with over half admitting to injecting drugs. And health problems such as asthma, cardiovasular disease and diabetes were also discovered to be more common.
Australian prisons may have to follow the example set by their New Zealand counterparts and force inmates to swap cigarettes for healthy carrot sticks instead.