Most prisoners forced to give up smoking will resume the habit once they're released, experts warn.
They say while smoking bans in all Australian jails are inevitable, they should be accompanied by post-release community support and interventions.
The call was made in a Medical Journal of Australia editorial by Professor Tony Butler, from the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society, and research fellow Dr Lorraine Yap.
They say prison smoking bans, already in place in the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and NSW, benefit prisoners' health and avoid possible litigation for authorities.
But they also note that very few jails around the world have achieved completely drug-free, including tobacco-free, environments due to prison black markets.
Overseas studies found that 56 per cent of ex-prisoners reported resuming smoking on their first day of release; 84 per cent relapsed within three weeks.
"Another follow-up study found that 63 per cent of former prisoners had relapsed on the first day of release, 82 per cent by one week, 86 per cent by one month, and 97 per cent at six months," they wrote.
"However, a US study found that interventions can be effective in preventing smoking relapse after release from prison."
Public health programs helped cut daily smoking rates in the general Australian population from 24 per cent in 1991 to 13 per cent in 2013.
But the smoking rates in prisons has remained at around 84 per cent.
The authors say high rates of community smoking persist in groups over-represented in the criminal justice system, including the mentally ill, Indigenous people and illicit drug users.
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