A damning report found that prison kitchen staff went out of their way to steal goods from their workplace, with as much as £800 of stock mysteriously disappearing in a week
Prisoners have been sacked from their jobs making ‘canteen goodie bags’ for other inmates — after they were caught stealing more than £800-worth of items a week. Around 90 inmates worked in the DHL workshop at 1,100-capacity HMP Swaleside in Kent.
It is the largest of all the 21 DHL prison workshops, which employ just under 1,000 inmates across the country, producing 64,000 orders-a-week across the prison estate. The most recent report from inspectors from the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), however, found that some of the workers were guilty of pinching goodies — or eating them on the job.
In 2019, around 90 inmates were all sacked after they were found to be pinching £1,200-a-week worth of goodies – and were replaced by the current lags from a different wing. The new recuits, however, have been found to be as untrustworthy as their predecessors.
The report found that many items were nicked, while ‘evidence’ of food items being eating ‘on the job’ was ‘obvious’, with inspectors finding empty chocolate, crisp and sweetie wrappers littering the floor of the workshop. Some wrappers were even found to be the cause of blocked toilets after lags tried to ‘flush away’ the evidence.
In an urgent note to the governor, the IMB stated: “The theft of stock from the DHL workshop must be addressed.” It stated that the most stolen items included ‘tins of fish and chocolate’.
The report states that just one officer oversees the workshop, which, when fully attended, sees 90 inmates at work. It stated: “Theft has been an ongoing issue…for over a year, the lack of proper searching has been a problem.
“The bi-annual full stock took place in September: £800 of stock went missing in a week. In the same week, two prisoners were found with a total of 42 cans of mackerel.
“The one with 30 cans was hardly being subtle.” It added: “One officer is expected to monitor all the prisoners and perform all searches.
“This is not feasible; an example is when lunch is split into two shifts. One officer cannot patrol those eating lunch and those outside.”
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