Not kosher... jail scam for better meals

Rise in inmates claiming to be Jewish

‘A variety of diets were available’

EVEN within the heady world of American television dramas, it was a scam that seemed too unrealistic to succeed.

But inmates at one of Scotland’s toughest prisons are successfully mimicking a far-fetched plotline from the hit comedy drama Orange is the New Black – by claiming to be Jewish in order to access better meals.

Inspectors at HMP Edinburgh have ordered an ‘urgent investigation’ into why more than one in ten prisoners are being served specially prepared kosher meals.

A total of 111 prisoners in Edinburgh were found to be demanding the meals – which cost four times as much as standard prison food – on ‘religious’ grounds.

An official inspection report published yesterday by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland stated that the growing demand for a kosher diet ‘did not appear to be for wholly faith-based reasons’.

The report also demanded that the Scottish Prison Service ‘should seek to understand the underlying reasons for this development in order to address this situation with some degree of urgency’.

The recent influx of new ‘Jewish’ inmates means prison chiefs are being forced to spend just under £670 extra every day on kosher food – more than £240,000 a year.

A kosher diet forbids pork and shellfish and means that meat cannot be prepared next to dairy products. Animals must be slaughtered with precision and examined by a skilled ‘shochet’ – someone extensively trained in the rituals of kosher slaughtering.

Standard prison meals cost around £2 each, while the kosher equivalent is far more expensive at £8 per head.

It is understood that meals such as chicken casserole and chicken curry feature heavily on the prison’s Jewish menu. The standard menu includes gammon steaks, pork chops and breaded fish.

The meals are more expensive because they have to be prepared outside the prison under kosher supervision, before being reheated and served to inmates.

Figures published during the 2013-14 financial year found that there were only nine Jewish prisoners in all of Scotland’s 15 jails.

But inmates across the UK are believed to have started converting to Judaism after watching Orange is the New Black, in which a character becomes Jewish as a ploy to get better quality food in the fictional Litchfield Peniten- tiary. Inspectors said they accepted that meals served up to prisoners should ‘conform to their dietary needs, cultural or religious norms’.

But they have demanded the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) act to establish why 13 per cent of inmates at HMP Edinburgh were now identifying as Jewish and being served kosher food.

The report read: ‘A variety of diets were available, including halal as well as a number of medical required diets such as gluten free. However the most popular non-standard diet by far was kosher.

‘At the time of inspection, 111 prisoners received a kosher diet, which equated to approximately 13 per cent of the overall prison population.

‘This, we were informed, was due to increase by a further ten the following week. SPS and prison management need to review this situation with some urgency to understand the reason why so many individuals are opting out of eating from the main menu options in such numbers.’

Earlier this year, it emerged that more than 90 inmates in Glenochil Prison had declared themselves Jewish and only permitted to eat kosher food.

The report comes just months after revelations that inmates are bombarding Scotland’s jail staff with more than 150 official complaints every week. Figures released in December showed prison bosses face a relentless stream of gripes concerning the ‘environment’ in jails, the levels of security and discipline and the ‘earnings’ for work behind bars.