UK intercourse offender jail hosts cooking competitors as lags face off over stoves
A prison for sex offenders has hosted a cooking competition for lags, enjoyed by other convicted criminals.
HMP Rye Hill hosted a Ready Steady Cook-style cooking show which will be broadcast on in-cell TVs for other cons. The contest was based on the hit BBC food show, which ran from 1994 to 2021.
It saw top chefs turn a £5 bag of ingredients into a delicious and inventive meal. The cooking contest was highlighted in a report of “best practices” within UK jails, which praised the Warwickshire prison’s administration for hosting the cook-off between eight prisoners.
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Inmates at the 664-person capacity prison near Rugby were able to taste the results as the dishes were shared across wings. The Improving Behaviours in Prisons report, written by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, praised the initiative, saying that the jail’s decent meals helped to reduce violence and that special “cultural” food days were a regular thing.
(Image: Getty Images)
An inmate quoted in the report said: “‘One of the main things you miss in prison is the quality of the food… so to have that plate of food that I was used to on the outside was a big thing for me.”
Another said: “It kind of freaked me out how friendly they (staff and guards) were…they call people by their first names because it is classed as a community.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The report added: “Prisoners at Rye Hill attributed lower rates of violence, drug misuse and self-harm to a fundamental shift in the way they were treated when they transferred in from other prisons. Food had also been a central feature of celebratory and cultural events at the prisons we visited.
“At Rye Hill, staff and prisoners enjoyed some time away from normal activities to celebrate Jamaica day with cultural education, music, and food. The importance of food as a means of connection and comfort was also highlighted in our 2022 thematic review.”
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