Greedy prisoners at a £150 million super-jail have sparked outrage – by demanding BIGGER food portions.
Roly-poly inmates at HMP Featherstone near Wolverhampton, West Mids., whined they were being dished up meager meals which was leaving them hungry in their cells.
An annual report by the Independent Monitoring Board revealed a group of inmates wrote to prison bosses demanding their plates were filled up.
Remarkably, prisoners at the Category C jail already get to choose from an extensive menu and get special meals prepared for celebrations and religious festivals.
Their ‘wide choice menu’ includes five portions of fruit and veg every day and key dates like Christmas, Chinese New Year, Ramandan, Eid and even British Pride Week are marked with other dishes.
South Staffordshire Tory MP Gavin Williamson said he found the prisoners’ complaints “hard to swallow”.
He fumed: “If they are complaining that their portions are too small, I would remind them that it is us taxpayers on the other side of the fence who are picking up the bill for their food.
“I think it a bit rich that someone who has committed a crime of sufficient seriousness to be sent to prison goes around moaning about not being given enough to eat.
“The road for these inmates to take if they want to achieve this objective is simple.
“They can then get a job, earn a salary and have enough money to buy whatever food they want.”
The complaints were revealed in the annual report on Featherstone Prison which produces 713,000 meals for its 687 prisoners every year.
It also found that drug smuggling was still a problem despite bosses installing extra fencing, more CCTV and an under vehicle camera system to checks traffic.
Officials have also covered all the roof vents into the workshops with grills to prevent drugs getting in to the jail.
But a statement in the report warns: “The ingress of illicit substances continues to be of concern although in the past year several steps have been taken to overcome this.”
The report also revealed the jail’s voluntary drug and alcohol rehabilitation service dealt with 695 inmates who passed through the scheme last year.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Featherstone is a prison that takes the illicit use of drugs very seriously and has a detailed action plan to tackle this.
“We recognise that there have been a small number of instances where property has not been transported with prisoners and we are working on a solution to overcome this.”
* In 2012 it emerged prisoners at HMP Featherstone were tucking into luxury meals such as hot roast dinners to celebrate special occasions.
Details released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed a fry-up breakfast was on offer on Christmas Day in 2011 before inmates tucked into a full roast lunch and bread pudding.
A range of ciabatta sandwiches with sausage rolls, pasta salad, crisps and chutney was then served up for dinner before a dessert of mince pies and fruit.
