Food in prisons better than that given to aged care residents as inmates allowed to order, cook

Australia’s 43,000 prisoners are better fed than people in care homes, and some are allowed to plan and cook their own meals and order ingredients.

Inmates can expect delicious foods from countries around the world, such as Mexican beef, Thai green curry, and peri peri chicken, all of which look top notch compared to what’s on offer in some care facilities.

The fancy prison meals were in stark contrast to the food served to the mother of Andrew Phelan, a resident of Regis Aged Care in Brighton, Melbourne, a facility that recently received four out of five stars.

Phelan’s mother was given a small handful of soggy potatoes, a child-sized fish cocktail, and a drop of tartar sauce.

Ex-convict Jackson Allum, who spent two years in various prisons in New South Wales, said Channel 7 about the prison food he received, including what was considered a special treat.

An elderly lady was given a ‘meal’ of cold fish and chips (above) for dinner at Regis Aged Care in Brighton

The highlight of the menu rotation was a serving of chicken wings, said Allum, who used a pseudonym to protect his identity.

“Obviously it wasn’t much because you only get three small wings and most of the guys are big.” But they were really delicious, it was like real meat,” she said.

“You know, in the movies when they give you gray slime on a tray, it’s not like that.”

In contrast, Mr Phelan wrote that cold fish and chips was “what passes for dinner at Regis Aged Care Brighton, where there are two staff to care for 12 people”.

‘Mommy’s bed doesn’t work. The food is cold. She has been left in mum’s room on a tray and if I wasn’t here there would be no way she could get it,” she said.

Mr. Phelan said he would be moving his mother to a new facility, writing: “How that place got 4 stars is beyond me.”

Mr. Phelan said he would be moving his mother out of Regis Aged Care, writing: “How that place got 4 stars is beyond me.”

In prisons, food varies between prisons, levels of security, and different states.

A spokesperson for the South Australia Department of Correctional Services said that “prisoners in low-security areas plan, budget, buy and cook their meals themselves.”

Allum said that in the lower-security prison areas, inmates can add to what they are given cans of tuna and packets of instant noodles they buy at the prison shop.

In some minimum security prisons such as Glenn Innes – 570km north of Sydney – groups of around 10 inmates may live together in units rather than cells.

While they’re at it, they can fill out forms to buy up to $30 worth of food, which they then cook themselves.

Even in prisons where they are not allowed to cook their own meals, the food served inside Australian prisons is mostly made by other inmates anyway.

At Long Bay Correctional Complex (pictured) in south Sydney, Reg Boys Bakery employs 45 inmates who bake 25,000 loaves of bread each week

The Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Center in Windsor, on the north-western outskirts of Sydney, has one of the largest prison kitchens in the country.

Ninety Windsor inmates cook 3.9 million prison meals each year, more than 75,000 a week, most of which are frozen and shipped to other prisons.

Working there and in other prison kitchens gives inmates qualifications they can use elsewhere once they have served their sentence.

However, the menu changes more frequently in some states than others.

In Tasmania, the seasonal menus set for summer and winter dinners are changed every six weeks, while in Queensland the menu is revised every two years.

Alternative prison meals are also available for inmates with different cultural, religious and medical needs.

In a recent experiment at South Australia’s Mobilong Prison, inmates were offered a second choice of lunch and dinner to improve nutrition.

It was deemed a success and the state plans to have all SA prisons offering menu options for July.

Meat slices, meat sausages and an omelet with rice (pictured) are meals cooked by inmates within the New South Wales prison system.

Some prisoners also make food that they sell outside the prisons.

At the Long Bay Correctional Complex in south Sydney, Reg Boys Bakery employs 45 inmates who bake 25,000 loaves of bread each week.

NSW Prisons Minister Geoff Lee said “inmates are certainly not eating like royalty”.

“But they are provided with a variety of meal options on a rotating schedule that meets their needs, ensuring they are well nourished and ready to engage in meaningful activities within the prison,” he said.