Convicts 'well fed'
Published:Sunday | June 26, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter
CONVICTED CRIMINALS in Jamaica are apparently better fed than the presumably 'innocent until proven guilty' persons in police lock-ups across the island.
A menu list provided by the Department of Correctional Services claims that prisoners are not given the same meals every day for breakfast, dinner, or supper. A fruit is always served with breakfast, which sometimes includes banana porridge and sardines, or callaloo and codfish.
Escoveitched fish with rice and gungo, potatoes and vegetable salad is reportedly served to prisoners for dinner on Sunday in week two of the department's 14-day menu cycle. Supper that night would be a pint of oats porridge with bread and margarine along with two ounces of sardines.
Lieutenant Colonel Sean Prendergast, acting commissioner of corrections, told The Sunday Gleaner that the provision of meals for prisoners is not outsourced. "All meals for inmates are provided by the Department of Correctional Services," he said in a written response to The Sunday Gleaner queries. Prendergast pointed out that the Horizon Remand Centre had caterers who prepared the food for the prisoners but that arrangement had ended.
Responsibility
The acting commissioner of corrections distanced himself and the Department of Corrections from the provision of meals to persons held in police lock-ups. "We have no responsibility whatsoever for persons held in lock-ups. That's the police," Prendergast said.
The army man pointed out that the responsibilities of the Department of Correctional Services regarding the diet of inmates are stated in Section 140 of the 1991 Correctional Institution (Adult Correctional Centre) Rules.
According to Section 140 of the rules that fall under Section 81 of the Corrections Act, "an inmate shall be fed in accordance with such dietary arrangements as may from time to time be approved by the superintendent".
The rules also stipulate that "no inmate shall receive or have in his possession any food other than the authorised issue except with the authority of the commissioner in special circumstances", or "with the authority of the medical officer if a variation of diet is desirable on medical grounds".
The law also allows a prisoner to lodge a complaint about his food. And an inmate is allowed to have his or her food "weighed to ascertain whether it contains the prescribed quantity".
However, this request must be made "as soon as possible after the diet is handed to him and it shall be weighed in his presence and also in the presence of a member of staff deputed for that purpose".
According to the acting commissioner, some amount of research goes into ensuring that the prisoners are provided with a balanced diet.
"The department, in the management of inmates' diet, had in consultation with the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute and the Scientific Research Council, has implemented standard operational procedures regarding meals served in the correctional facilities," he said.
Despite the claims being made by the prison boss about consulting with the Scientific Research Council (SRC) on the quality of meals served to prisoners, an officer at the SRC could not confirm the collaboration.
Ann Marie Smith, manager of product research and development at the SRC, told The Sunday Gleaner that she has been at the council for the last five years and she is not aware of the SRC being consulted by the Department of Correctional Services on that particular matter. However, Smith admitted that the consultation could have occurred before she started working there.
The prison boss also noted that each inmate is provided with three meals each day. Prendergast made it clear that the Ministry of National Security has no direct responsibility for the provision of meals to inmates. He also pointed out that the Government does not stipulate the nutritional requirements that must be met. This, he said, is the responsibility of the commissioner of corrections and the institution's superintendent.