Obese prisoners given mobility scooters at ‘holiday camp’ jail

Overweight prisoners at North Sea Camp use the scooters, which can cost up to £8,000 each, to get around the jail’s sprawling site TAXPAYERS are footing the bill for motor scooters for obese sex offenders and violent criminals.

Overweight lags at North Sea Camp, a 420-capacity open jail in Lincolnshire, are handed the scooters if they are too fat to walk around the prison and its sprawling 1,000-acre grounds.

Some 60 per cent of those at the jail – dubbed North Sea Holiday Camp – are sex offenders, with about 100 serving life sentences.

Despite the obesity problem, they can tuck into a full English breakfast every day. That includes sausages and bacon from pigs hand-reared on the 200-acre jail farm and free-range eggs from its chickens.

A report out last week by inspectors from the Independent Monitoring Board said there had been an increase in the number of overweight prisoners, with some cells not considered big enough for them.

Top of the range “bariatric” scooters, capable of carrying prisoners weighing up to 65st, cost about £8,000 each.

They have chunky 14-inch tyres and an extra-wide seat, along with a top speed of between eight and 15mph – with batteries capable of taking them up to 30 miles. Cheaper versions, that can transport 25st users, cost in the region of £2,000 each. And those capable of transporting people weighing up to 40st cost about £4,000.

But those using the scooters can’t access places including the library, the education unit and part of the healthcare department because of narrow doors, steep ramps and tight turns. “The prison does not do enough to help such residents who are therefore not treated fairly,” said the report.

An insider said yesterday: “Obesity is a problem in prison, just as it is on the outside. We are dealing with bigger men than ever, and things have got so bad that for some inmates this is the only option to keep them mobile.”

The report also says obese lags who cannot fit into prison-issue clothing are handed clothes bought from mail-order catalogues.

Under the Equality Act 2010, prisoners have a right to “mobility aid”, with scooters and wheelchairs provided by the Prison Service, NHS or local council.