THE wife of one of the Erlestoke prisoners who had to be moved after other inmates staged a riot at the weekend has blamed the smoking ban for an increase in violence in the jail.

Philomena McDonagh contacted the Gazette this week to reveal that she had spoken to her husband Michael on the phone the day before a number of prisoners smashed up cells on two wings in the prison near Devizes.

She said: “It is the smoking ban which is to blame. It has caused a lot of problems and tension. Some of the prisoners would rather move to a different prison, even if it is a higher category so they can still smoke. Michael doesn’t smoke but the ban is driving some of the others crazy.

“Before the ban came in tobacco was changing hands for huge amounts of money and then being stock-piled. When he rang me I could hear things kicking off and an alarm ringing in the background.”

Mrs McDonagh said her husband had told her that during the riot cell doors had been kicked-in, toilets ripped out and many things were smashed and destroyed. She said: “Michael wasn’t involved but he said that everything just kicked off and he was frightened. It is not right that he is now stuck in a Category A prison in London.

Erlestoke is one of four prisons in England that has been piloting the no smoking policy which came into force on May 23. A spokesman for the POA said: “We had no intelligence to suggest the smoking ban had anything to do with the riot.”

A ministry spokesman said: “It was not to do with the smoking ban.”
But other sources within the prison said that the ban had caused problems even though inmates had been issued with nicotine patches.

Mrs McDonagh, 25, whose husband is serving a nine-year sentence for burglary, said that he ring her from a prison phone on Friday. She said: “They were on lock-down because of staff shortages. He had been locked up for 23 hours.

“He was worried about what was going to happen. He had only had a sandwich and a glass of water that day. Michael is no angel but he wanted to stay out of trouble. He is not a violent person but he was attacked three or four days earlier.”

She said she did not find out until two days after the riot, which ended at 3am on Sunday, that her husband had been sent to Belmarsh top security prison in London.

She said: “It is a Category A prison and he shouldn’t be in there. It is a long way from his family and friends. I live in Birmingham and he has family in Bristol. He has not been told anything about how long he will have to stay there.”

But she said he was also scared that he might be moved back to Erlestoke. She said: “I don’t want him going back there. I don’t think it is safe. There are lots of people taking drugs.

The couple, who were married while Mr McDonagh was at Oakwood jail in Wolverhampton, have been together for three years. Mrs McDonagh said: “I just want people to realise what is going on in there.

“I don’t know when I will be able to see him. I keep ringing to find out what is happening but no one is telling me anything. I am speaking out as I don’t think what has happened is right. I want to do it for my husband. I will do whatever it takes.”