Nineteen Quebec inmates are fighting a smoking ban inside prisons, saying it infringes on their quality of life and threatens the safety of other inmates.

The federal prisoners, which include a number of high profile biker gang members as well as an infamous drug kingpin, say that the ban violates their charter rights.

"The sentence in a penitentiary or in a prison is in itself a terrible, terrible punishment that is hard to bear and is very difficult for a person to go through, and there's no reason to make it worse," said prominent Montreal human rights lawyer Julius Grey, who helped the inmates launch their lawsuit Wednesday.

They say the smoking ban makes them stressed, angry and aggressive, and that if all prisoners are not allowed to smoke, it could make life dangerous for everyone inside.

Former inmate Clement Proulx, who is now a drug counsellor, says tobacco behind bars should not be considered a luxury item.

"The first unwritten rule about prison is anything that calms them down keeps them from aggression on the civilians, on the guards," he said. "Take something away from them under a stressful environment like that, it's going to create a lot of problems."

The prisoners who launched the suit include notorious drug trafficker Gerald Matticks, biker gang member Benoit Guimond, and Daniel Patry, who killed well-loved children's TV puppeteer Pierre Regimbald.

Federal prisons banned smoking inside and outside while on prison property in 2008.

The prisoners launching the federal lawsuit say the rule was instituted by Quebec prison authorities and is not a federal law so they should be allowed to smoke in the yards, just like the prison guards.

The Quebec government at first had banned prisoners from smoking inside and outside provincially-run prisons as well, but backtracked, allowing inmates to smoke in the yards after a riot at provincially-run Orsainville prison near Quebec City only a few days after the rule was implemented in February 2008.

The riot was presumably sparked by the ban.

The union that represents 6,000 prison guards says tensions have decreased since the ban was put into place.

"In the year and a half since the tobacco has been in place we have not seen one single incident that can be attributed to the ban on tobacco," said Lyle Stewart of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

At the time of the ban in Quebec, prisoners' rights groups told CTV Montreal that up to 80 per cent of inmates smoke, and warned that forcing them to suddenly quit could lead to violence. Eight provinces enforce their own bans.

When the ban was first announced, the Quebec government said it would cover the costs of nicotine patches to help the prisoners butt out.

With a report by CTV Montreal's Stephane Giroux