What prisoners eat is a topic that extends beyond mere sustenance. Research indicates that proper nutrition significantly enhances well-being, security, and safety within prisons. Moreover, it can play a crucial role in rehabilitation, reducing the likelihood of reoffending.
Let's examine how prison food is treated in a region known for its low reoffending rates and humane approach to incarceration, contrasting it with countries that have higher recidivism and a more punitive culture.
The Nordic Model: Respect, Rehabilitation, and Equality
In Scandinavia, the prison system successfully prioritizes the wellbeing of prisoners through opportunities to cook, eat and learn about nutritious food. It is rooted in the principles of respect, rehabilitation and equality.
During a visit to prisons across Scandinavia, the focus was on understanding how they feed their prisoners.
Denmark: Self-Sufficiency and Culinary Education
In Denmark, Storstrøm prison, a high-security male establishment, offers a unique approach. Here, 65% of the prisoners cook all of their meals themselves, in kitchens they share with about six others. They plan meals and budget together, and twice a week they shop for ingredients in the prison’s in-house grocery store. They dine together, often with the on-duty prison officers. The less confident cooks in the housing unit quickly learn vital kitchen skills from their peers.
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One prisoner shared, “I eat well, cook for myself, work out and spend time outside. I can keep in touch with my family and I’m able to bake my kids cakes for when they visit. I feel as though I’m in the best possible position I could be to come back out.”
Storstrøm’s prison kitchen employs a catering manager who leads a team of staff and prisoners. He enrols every prison kitchen worker in a four-year culinary diploma. At the end of it, they will be trained to the same level of qualification as he is. The kitchen’s in-house nutritionist is required, by Danish law, to measure the nutritional breakdown of each dish and display it to prisoners.
The kitchen staff prepared homemade Greek meatballs with couscous and feta with care and attention to detail.
10 PRISON FOODS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Finland: Nature's Bounty and a Sense of Normality
At Sulkava prison in Finland, prisoners fished for their dinner and foraged in the woodland for mushrooms and lingonberries. “Being here and able to cook for myself brings me a sense of normality, dignity and self-sufficiency,” one prisoner told me.
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At Suomenlinna prison off the coast of Helsinki, men lined up at the salad bar and help themselves to fresh rye bread.
Prison food in Finland. Source: The Guardian
The UK: A Stark Contrast
In contrast, prisoners in the UK routinely eat unhealthy, processed, tasteless food, sometimes alone in their cell, often next to their toilet. It’s a far cry from the UK, where a rat-infested prison kitchen and a food poisoning incident that left six people seriously ill in hospital recently hit the headlines.
In England and Wales, the daily budget for prison food is just £2.70 per prisoner. Every day, our prisoners are eating poor quality food that is degrading their health and wellbeing at exactly the time they need it to improve. They are leaving prison in poorer health than when they entered, making recovery and rehabilitation difficult, and for many impossible. Some have simply forgotten how to do the things we take for granted: how to eat around a table, after months of eating alone, or how to cook, after surviving on pre-made, pre-selected prison meals, and sometimes noodles boiled in a travel kettle.
For a few, such as Mohammed Azizi, the consequences of a prolonged prison diet are much more extreme. In April, an inquest into his death while serving time at HMP Norwich heard how he had “repeatedly claimed that prison food was making his Crohn’s disease symptoms worse”. Along with Crohn’s disease and self-neglect, malnutrition was recorded as a cause of death.
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Glimmers of Hope
However, some British prisons are striving to improve. A prison in Brixton, London, makes every plate of food from scratch. Homemade spice rubs, marinades and curry sauces enhance the poor quality meat and pack it with flavour. Prisoners make their own pastry, turning it into quiches and pies. Inspiring leadership and a commitment to making every plate of food as healthy, delicious and appetising as it can be within the limitations of prison catering set it apart from the rest.
The charity I founded teaches prisoners in England and Wales to cook and grow food, and trains catering teams to produce healthy meals. But prisons like HMP Brixton are still the exception.
The Impact of Nutrition on Behavior and Rehabilitation
Better quality food in prison has the potential to reduce violence, improve mental health and reduce reoffending. A study by Think Through Nutrition at a young offenders institution in Aylesbury found that nutritional supplements reduced disciplinary incidents by 37%.
Recommendations for Change
Prison catering teams need to be inspired, upskilled and empowered to make good quality food. Prison grounds need to be utilised more to grow food. New prisons need to be designed featuring self-catering facilities, and existing establishments should be given the resources to introduce them. At Manchester prison, we’re about to start a cooking course in new kitchenette facilities. This shows that even in the country’s oldest Victorian prisons, a different approach is possible.
With the prison population in England and Wales projected to reach 114,800 by 2028, the UK urgently needs to rethink how and why we lock people up. Better quality food needs to be part of that solution.
| Feature | Nordic Countries | UK |
|---|---|---|
| Food Quality | Fresh, nutritious, often prepared by inmates | Processed, unhealthy, often pre-made |
| Inmate Involvement | Involved in cooking, shopping, and meal planning | Little to no involvement |
| Budget | Higher per prisoner | £2.70 per prisoner per day |
| Rehabilitation Focus | Strong emphasis on rehabilitation through nutrition and skills | Limited focus on nutrition and its impact on rehabilitation |
