Prisoners are getting their friends on the outside to throw fillet steak, sausages and fresh fish over the walls after growing tired of prison food, a report claims.
Inmates at the 380-capacity HMP Thorn Cross in Cheshire have claimed they are often left hungry after being served ‘awful’ meals with meagre portion sizes.
And prisoners are so fed up that they are arranging for friends to hurl their favourite foods over the walls, a report by the Independent Monitoring Board found.
Other items believed to have been thrown over include tins of tuna, salmon, and packets of bacon.
Inmates at the 380-capacity HMP Thorn Cross in Cheshire have claimed they are often left hungry after being served meals with meagre portion sizes
Prisoners are so fed up that they are arranging for friends to hurl their favourite foods over the walls. Other items believed to have been thrown over include tins of tuna, salmon, and packets of bacon
The IMB report states: ‘Contraband entering the establishment continues to be problematic.
‘In the reporting year there have been incidences of mobile phones, sim cards, phone chargers… and even fresh meat and fish. Despite excellent use of intelligence available to the discipline staff it remains a problem.
‘It is important that prevention on entering the establishment is paramount and use and uptake of the contraband is impossible.’ The report said that the catering team had introduced ‘theme night’ menus, which allow prisoners to eat food from different countries, as well as a ‘food focus’ group – where new menu ideas can be suggested.
‘There have been innovative changes within catering such as theme nights and revision of the menus based on preferences identified from a questionnaire.
‘The new menus contain five options, including vegetarian, and the menus change on a four week cycle.
‘A Food Focus group has been established and is well represented by the prisoners to discuss issues and suggestions to the catering team.’
fillet steak, sausages and fresh fish are some of the items that inmates wanted thrown over the wall
A separate report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons into the jail last year also confirmed that food was being thrown over the walls.
The 2017 report found that 88 per cent of inmates said the food served up at the prison was awful and that it was ‘very unpopular with prisoners’.
It stated: ‘The food we tasted was not of a good quality. The menu lacked variety and portions were generally too small. Prisoners told us that due to the poor quality and quantity of the prison food, they had to supplement their diets disproportionately with food bought in the prison shop.
‘As an indication of the extent of this problem, the security department told us that cans of tuna had become contraband items, found thrown in over the prison fence.’
Prison Service guidelines on catering in prisons says the food served to inmates in the UK should be ‘wholesome, nutritious, well prepared and served, reasonably varied and sufficient in quantity’.
The Mail revealed two years ago that prisoners at HMP Guys Marsh had brazenly posted photographs of their cushy lifestyle on Facebook.
Inmates bragged that they gorged on steak dinners, drank alcohol and took drugs while their cells were crammed with games consoles and stereos.
The images were taken on mobile phones that had been smuggled into the Category C prison in Dorset.
