Prison Christmas menus leave bad taste in the mouth

It sounds like the menu in a posh restaurant, but these were all choices offered to prisoners at Midland jails this Christmas.

Some convicts were given the choice from seven main meals.

Menus released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that inmates at Stafford Prison, which houses sex offenders including Rolf Harris, had a choice of seven different main courses last year.

The choices ranged from a homemade nut roast served with grilled tomatoes and roast potatoes, to roast turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sausages and bacon, and roast potatoes.

Choice two was fish with a lemon and prawn dressing while choice four on the menu was roast pork, apple sauce, stuffing, and roast potatoes.

Choice five was chicken and spinach curry with rice, choice six was a stuffed butternut squash, and choice seven was a noodle grill with sweet chilli sauce.

Dessert was a choice of 'Christmas dessert' and custard or fresh pineapple.

At HMP Featherstone prisoners had a choice of sliced roast turkey, peri-peri chicken, vegetable Kiev with roast potatoes or rice and peas plus seasonal vegetables, stuffing and gravy with Christmas muffin.

At Young Offenders Institution Brinsford, inmates had a choice of a half roast chicken or country mushroom pie both with roast potatoes and fresh mixed vegetables.

On the dessert menu was a choice of Christmas pudding or mince pie and custard.

South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson said: "My constituents will find it quite shocking that prisoners who have broken the law will be able to enjoy choices of up to seven different meals this Christmas. It is a liberty many will expect should be lost when one breaks the law."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said meals for prisoners are set at £2 a day.

He said: "As meal ingredients are bought from a range of commodities, recipes, preparation and production methods are decided locally, therefore individual meal costs will vary between prisons. The budget allocated by the National Offender Management Service to public sector prisons within England and Wales to cover all prisoner meals and beverages is currently set at £2.02 per prisoner per day

At women's prison HMP Drake Hall in Eccleshall near Stafford, inmates had five choices of roast turkey, fasirky (Slovakian burgers) and rice, fried fish in spicy tomato sauce, stuffed aubergine gratin, cranberry nut roast, and a choice of Christmas pudding or fruit for dessert.

And Young Offenders Institution Swinfen Hall near Lichfield had three choices for their main course.

The first was one slice of roast turkey with cranberry sauce, one slice of roast pork with apple sauce with stuffing ball, bacon and chipolata.

The second choice was two slices of roast beef with horseradish sauce, Yorkshire pudding, and offered with a stuffing ball.

The third choice was a vegetable nut roast with roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots and peas with gravy.

The dessert was a choice of Christmas pudding with custard sauce or Genoa sponge and custard.

HMP Stoke Heath at Market Drayton offered choices of roast chicken leg and stuffing, beef grill steaks, vegetable burger, stuffed pepper with couscous and vegetables, or turkey stroganoff.

All came with roast potatoes, carrots, sprouts and gravy.

There was a choice of Christmas pudding, vanilla sauce, or satsuma.