Estonia proposes letting prisoners use nicotine pouches, easing nightly cell checks

Estonia's Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs has sent a draft regulation out for approval that would change several rules governing life inside the country's prisons. The most notable change would allow all Estonian prisoners to possess and use nicotine pouches, including carrying them to visitations — something previously banned entirely.

The shift stems from the arrival of Swedish inmates at Tartu Prison, who are permitted to use nicotine pouches under Swedish rules. Officials determined that maintaining a ban only for Estonian prisoners while Swedish inmates could use the pouches would be impractical, prompting the proposal to extend the permission to everyone.

According to the draft's explanatory notes, keeping the current ban would require staff to check every prisoner for nicotine pouches before each visitation, confiscate any found, store them, and return them afterward. Since the pouches are small and already allowed inside the prison generally, searching for them specifically before visits would create unnecessary workload without much practical benefit.

Nighttime check exceptions

A second change concerns nighttime supervision. Currently, staff are required to check on every cell or room during each round, typically by looking through a peephole or viewing window. The new draft would remove this blanket requirement for nighttime hours.

Under the proposed rules, only prisoners under locked-cell regime, those serving disciplinary confinement, and those identified as suicide risks would continue to be checked at least once per hour, given the heightened supervision their situations warrant. Other prisoners would only be checked at night when security or safety concerns make it necessary.

The amendment does not ban nighttime checks outright — staff can still look into any cell if a prisoner's behavior, unusual sounds, or other circumstances suggest a check is needed to protect the prisoner, others, or prison security. The stated goal is to make nighttime monitoring more risk-based, cutting down on unnecessary disruptions to prisoners' sleep and privacy.