Prison officer Steve Burrows has vivid recollections of when they tried to ban smoking inside Brisbane's rebuilt Woodford Correctional Centre.

"That didn't work, that jail burnt down. It was severely damaged by rioting and fire."

The inmates' outrage when one of their liberties was threatened back in 1997 might preface the reaction when New Zealand's penal institutions become smoke-free from July 2011.

The New Zealand Government's policy, announced last week by Corrections Minister Judith Collins, goes further than current Australian legislation - no prisons are totally smoke-free.

Burnt by the Brisbane riot, Queensland's corrections department allows prisoners to smoke in designated areas, ditto Western Australia. In South Australia smoking in cells is permissible.

Each state has its own smoking reduction policy for prisons, the intention being to ultimately stub the habit out altogether.

A national summit on tobacco smoking in prisons will be held in Canberra next month in a bid to formulate an Australia-wide strategy.

It promises to be a gradual process, one that has already inflamed prisoner advocacy groups like Sydney-based Justice Action.

Its New Zealand-born co-ordinator Brett Collins has fought for two years to defend a prisoner's access to cigarettes and is also resisting plans by the New South Wales Department of Health to ban smoking from mental health institutions.

He labelled developments in his homeland as "outrageous".

Mr Collins said the department of health policy unfairly targeted a vulnerable sector of the community; prisoners in Australia and New Zealand fell into the same category.

It was imperative prisoners actually wanted to quit.

"You can't impose mandatory rehabilitation. It's ridiculous and it's destined to fail. They must be involved in the process."

If not the repercussions could be severe.

"If an administration imposes a ban you end up with immense resentment.

"Removing tobacco is devastating - it's the one thing prisoners can buy with their disposable income. It's the basis of social interaction, 80 percent of prisoners smoke."

Other than the possibility of tobacco-deprived inmates turning violent, Mr Collins predicted widespread corruption among prison staff who would smuggle in cigarettes to supplement their incomes.

"You're increasing temptation," he said.

"They're not paid very much, inevitably there will be immense corruption coming out of it.

"Prison officers are going to be searched for tobacco, it will make a laughing stock of the New Zealand prison system."

He even suggested sympathetic members of the public would try and throw packets over prison walls.

"People smoking outside will feel a sense of solidarity with prisoners on this one."

Mr Burrows, from the Queensland Prison Officers Association, disregarded those fears and said smoking reduction policies were non-negotiable.

"We've had violence in our prisons over no smoking policies but ultimately the prison service has to be in charge of the prisons, not the prisoners," he said.

"We're entitled to a smoke-free workplace, we're getting there bit by bit," he said, predicting all Australian prisons would eventually be smoke-free.

Prison smoking bans are already in force in parts of the United States and Canada while the Isle of Man has Europe's only completely smoke-free prison.

"It's working across the entire US federal penitentiary system, it's working in 11 American states, it's working in California and since it's been introduced in California a few years ago one cardiological practice reports a 40 percent reduction in calls they've had from prisoners," said Professor Mike Daube from the Australian Council on Smoking and Health.

He supported the New Zealand Government's stance.

"It's not about punishing, it's about protecting people.

"They're doing it sensibly, they're not banging them on the head saying you've got to stop smoking tonight," he said, doubting there would be a repeat of the scenes at the Woodford Correctional Centre.

"Before smoking restrictions start someone always tells you the sky is going to fall in, whether it's smoking in pubs or on aircraft. It never actually happens."

Source: AAP News Limited.