Mr McKim said prisons were one of the few remaining workplaces where smoking was allowed, albeit in a restricted fashion.

``Smoking is identified as a major public health concern in the general community and it presents as an even more compelling health issue within prison populations,'' Mr McKim said.

New Zealand's prisons have adopted a similar ban while the Northern Territory will become the first Australian jurisdiction to go smoke free on July 1.

Mr McKim said he learnt three key things from the New Zealand experience: to have a long lead-in time, to develop an implementation plan with a range of stakeholders and to put in place replacement therapies. 

Cancer Council director Kathryn Terry welcomed the move, saying ``the proportion of smokers at Risdon Prison is much higher than the general population, around 88 per cent; in the general population it's around 22 per cent''.

Mr McKim dismissed civil liberty concerns on the grounds that passive smoke affected prison staff.

``People who are incarcerated in prison lose rights, they lose the right to freedom . . . so I don't see this as anything other than a safe workplace for staff and improving the well-being of staff of our prison population,'' Mr McKim said.

Prison Advisory Service convenor Greg Barns said the move was an ``absurd overreaction'' and  a ``distraction'', and it would harm prisoners.

``If you go into prison, and they say to you `You can't smoke any more, you're gonna go cold turkey',  one would think that would put a person under much greater stress,'' Mr Barns said.

``When you're in prison, it's the least of anyone's worries that you have a smoke.''

Mr Barns said that in New Zealand, a smoke-free policy did not create a smoke-free prison and instead made cigarettes valuable contraband.

An estimates committee revealed that   more than $400,000 worth of cigarettes was  bought by prisoners in 2011-12, who are on track to do the same in 2012-13.