Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LIFE IS GRUEL AT TV PORRIDGE PRISON
Lags aren’t getting their oats
BY
LAGS at the prison where Porridge was filmed say they don’t get enough... porridge.
Inmates at category B Chelmsford, in Essex, moan “child-sized” dollops leave them hungry.
Even staff criticised the portions at the prison, which doubled for fictional HMP Slade in the 1979 movie version of Ronnie Barker’s hit BBC sitcom.
The servings were highlighted by an Independent Monitoring Board report. It found: “Food portions were too small. There were reports from a number of wings that this was a major issue.
“‘Big enough for children but not for adults,’ was the opinion of more than one senior officer.” A prison source added: “All the portions are way too small, from porridge to the evening meal. Lads are losing weight because they get child-sized portions.”
The report also said kitchens at the jail – built in 1819 – are in poor condition.
It added: “When HM Inspectorate of Prisons visited in late August they said the main kitchen was ‘unkempt and grubby’, some equipment was in poor repair and there was poor drainage. We share that view.”
Gripes about portions at the jail date back to 1990 – when Arsenal soccer star Tony
Adams served 57 days for drink-driving.
He revealed the prison chef smuggled whole cooked chicken into his cell to keep him going.
The Porridge film – also starring Richard Beckinsale and Fulton Mackay – was shot when the jail was being refurbished.
But, 44 years on, the inspectorate report said that in some parts of the jail 70% of inmates share a cell designed for one lag and levels of violence are high.