'REVOLTING FOOD'

42 point

42 point

42 point

By IAN SINGLETON

CONTINUED ON P2

Prisoners efuse 'revolting' food

PRISONERS held at an East Lancashire police station are refusing to eat food offered in the cells because they say it's "revolting".

And their protest over the fare at the force's Greenbank divisional headquarters in Blackburn has been backed by an Independent Custody Visitor.

And now police are looking into changing the supplier of the food at the HQ of Eastern Division, covering Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley.

Officers are already breaking the rules to make toast for famished prisoners who have turned down the grub on offer.

Independent custody visitors, who inspect the standards for prisoners, have raised concerns about the quality of food since Greenbank station opened in January 2003.

The £7.3million station has eight juvenile detention cells and 42 adult cells which house

the 12,000 people who are arrested, on average, across the division each year.

At present, prisoners are given microwave meals, such as hot pot and pasta bake. Officers from the custody team warm up the food and check its temperature before serving it.

That is all the staff are legally allowed to do as they are not permitted to prepare food. But independent custody visitor Edna Arnold said the most common phrase prisoners used when asked to described the food was that "it looks like sick".

Prisoners, she added, were going hungry rather than eat the food.

Mrs Arnold, who has been a nurse, social worker, councillor and was the founder of Blackburn homeless charity Nightsafe, said: "I have to agree with them. I accept it is not the Ritz and that they are not entitled to caviar, but the food should be edible.

"It is revolting. On the last occasion I visited, one person said it was nice, but before that in all my reports since it opened it was described as disgusting. Hot pot is the only one they will eat, but they don't like the pasta bake.

"The food is sloppy and in a plastic container. It looks like stew. Not many of them eat it unless they are absolutely famished.

"The police themselves are quite reasonable with them. They have been making them toast, which, ridiculously, they are not supposed to do.

"Now they are going to look at changing the supplier. I have a meeting next week when they are going to show us what they will have instead."

A police spokesman added: "We are having discussions with our catering department with a view to changing supplier following concerns raised by the custody visitors. We can only serve the meals that we are provided by the supplier as there are strict guidelines and we don't have food preparation areas."