Vegan schnitzels and cranberry gourmet sausage rolls are on the menu for some of Britain’s most notorious prisoners on New Year’s Day.
Special provision is being made at Category A men’s prisons tomorrow, with a range of healthy and diet-specific options being made available.
At HMP Frankland, inmates can choose from dishes including halal diced pepper and beef casserole, vegan schnitzel, salmon in sauce and roast turkey and gammon with chipolata sausage and stuffing.
Roast potatoes or boiled rice with carrots and sprouts are the trimmings.
Afterwards, inmates can choose from Christmas pudding or fruit cocktail.
Past and present inmates at the jail in Brasside, Durham, include Soham child murderer Ian Huntley, serial killer Levi Bellfield and former police officer Wayne Couzens, who abducted and murdered Sarah Everard.
At HMP Manchester, prisoners can choose from homemade vegetable or chicken curry, both with rice and naan bread on a grid menu denoting the dietary status of each item.
The other meat option is a half-roast chicken served with baby potatoes, seasonal vegetables and gravy.
Sliced cake and custard and mince pies are listed under a ‘sweets’ section.
Teatime servings at the jail, formerly known as ‘Strangeways’, include a coronation chicken barm bap with sliced cake, a packet of crisps, chocolate bar biscuit and an orange.
At Wakefield, the January 1 menu is headed by a vegan schnitzel, vegetable pie, halal chicken balti curry and cranberry and stuffing gourmet sausage roll, with all the mains coming with sides of chips and peas.
The dessert section lists white forest roulade, vegetarian strawberry mousse and fruit.
Dubbed ‘Monster Mansion’, the jail’s list of notorious inmates over the years has included prolific serial killer Harold Shipman, who was held there before his trial, and Moors murderer Ian Brady.
Entertainment at Wakefield includes a carol service in the chapel and pool and chess competitions on the wings.
At HMP Full Sutton, lunch is a choice from five items including a 1/4lb falafel and spinach burger, a chicken balti pie and a halal beef burger, with sides of chips, mixed salad and relish and mayonnaise.
Desserts include honeydew melon and chocolate fudge gateaux.
On January 2 inmates at the prison in the East Riding of Yorkshire can choose from lunch items including a vegan sausage roll and cranberry dip and afters of vegan Jaffa Cakes and Tunnocks Snowballs marshmallows.
The prison made headlines last month when serial killer Stephen Griffiths, dubbed the ‘Crossbow Cannibal’, was reportedly attacked in the jail by someone who knew one of his victims.
While special provision is being made for the festive season, the prison system is widely viewed as being in crisis.
The Howard League for Penal Reform has warned of ‘dire conditions’ within the estate in England and Wales.
In a warning about a projected rise in prison numbers, the campaign group said earlier this month: ‘The prison system is already severely overcrowded, with more than half of jails in England and Wales holding more people than they are designed to accommodate.
‘A long line of official inspection reports published in recent months have revealed how rising numbers are contributing to dire conditions, with many people in prison spending hours on end locked inside their cells with nothing to do.’
The menus were released by the Ministry of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act after a request by Metro.
Prisons are allocated £2.70 per inmate, per day to spend on three meals.
The rules stipulate that they must be varied, nutritious and meet the religious, cultural and medical needs of all under lock and key.
The Prison Service maintains that all meals offered to prisoners meet nutritional guidelines set out by the Food Standards Agency and the Department of Health and Social Care.
A spokesperson said: ‘Each meal in prison costs 90p on average and meals at Christmas are no different.’
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