Prison food is so poor it's criminal

In his annual report unveiled yesterday, chief inspector of prisons Dr Andrew McLellan attacked the quantity and standard of food given to prisoners, insisting it was "impossible" for inmates to receive the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. He said the budget for food and drink - 1.57 per prisoner per day - has not changed since 1996.

In a report on Polmont Young Offenders' Institution last year, he bluntly stated "there is not enough food for young men".

Since then, he said, there has been "no real change" in the standard of prison fare, despite the involvement of Scotland's former chief medical officer, Dr Mac Armstrong.

In his annual report, Dr McLellan said: "I once asked the manager in charge of catering at Polmont what he would do with an extra 50p per day per prisoner. His immediate reply was, 'Give them more'."

He said prisoners were only able to eat an average of fewer than three portions of fruit and vegetables a day, compared to the five portions recommended by the Scottish Executive.

"There is no prison in Scotland in which a prisoner who chose every available option for fruit and vegetables could achieve that target.

"An examination of menus over a four-week period shows that the average across all establishments is fewer than three portions per day," the report said.

Referring to research which has shown that giving young people healthier food can lead to improved behaviour, Dr McLellan added: "Most prisoners will have been eating a great deal of fat and sugar and sodium before they came into prison, and they will have been eating very little fruit and vegetables. It is possible that encouraging prisoners to eat nutritious food might be a contribution not only to healthier living but also to less destructive behaviour."

Unveiling his report, Dr McLellan added: "Research into prison food shows it has a very high fat content, a very high salt content and not nearly enough vegetables."

Catering is provided by Scottish Prison Service (SPS) staff, who say the problem is that most prisoners only want to eat unhealthy foods. A source said: "There's no point spending money on salad if no-one's going to eat it. Most just want chips or a pie - anything that can fit between two slices of bread.

"Less money is spent on hospital food. If we increase the food budget, we'll get slated." A spokeswoman for the SPS said the quality of prison food was under review.

"A Good Food Group has been set up to look at the nutritional content and quantity of food offered across the estate," she said.

Menus are rotated every four weeks, with prisoners given a standard breakfast of cereal and a morning roll with jam.

One typical lunch menu at Barlinnie consists of an orange- juice ice lolly and a choice of either macaroni and chips, chicken curry with rice or two lorne sausage rolls.

Dinner the same day offers a choice of smoked sausage and chips with brown sauce, pasta flutes with bolognaise sauce or a tuna mayo baguette with fruit and crisps. The dessert is mixed fruit jelly and ice cream.

Catherine Hankey, lecturer in human nutrition at Glasgow University, said: "These meals appear to be low in fibre, high in fat with low fruit and vegetable provision. Desserts are sugar-based and seem to provide little of other nutrients."

In the report, Dr McLellan also said the full extent of overcrowding in Scotland's prisons will be masked by a new system of measurement.

One effect of the change will be that Inverness Prison will not be considered overcrowded until it exceeds its design capacity by more than 48 per cent.

His report noted that overcrowding in Scottish jails is "a slightly less grim story than last year, but only slightly".

Prisoner numbers in 2003-4 peaked at 7,074, while the peak in the following year was 6,999. Peak overcrowding fell by 1 per cent - but this was still 13 per cent above design capacity.