Inmates will get less porridge and other favourites after prison menu overhaul

Lags will get less porridge after a shake up of prison menus.

New guidance says catering teams should avoid cooking the same dish more than once a month – so there’ll likely be less gruel on offer. Bosses hope expanding inmates' culinary horizons will boost mental health and improve behaviour.

The plans, part of the Food in Prisons Policy Framework, recommend staff sample meals each day to ensure quality is top notch. And protected groups like transgender prisoners and different religious communities must be given special provisions. It comes after a man called 999 for 'his own protection' - then ended up jailed himself.

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A government document said the changes are backed by scientific evidence and academic studies, and will “protect the physical and mental health and wellbeing of people in prison.” It adds: “The policy aims to contribute to lowering internal tension within the prison environment, so as to maintain the levels of overall safety and security.”

Cons regularly moan of poor jail nosh. One wrote in a column for prison paper Inside Time: “It is absolutely disgusting with no protein whatsoever – all we get is a small sausage roll or a scruffy piece of processed meat which is wafer thin. Where is your balanced diet that grown men like me are supposed to get?

“No five-a-day fruit or veg, just 220ml milk. It’s not enough. Battersea Dogs Home gets more of an allowance than we do. “Schools get more than we do. We who don’t have family to send in money to support us have to suffer. We can’t possibly buy any food items on the few pounds we are paid. Government rules state prisoners must be given three meals a day, including at least one “substantial hot” option. Porridge was the title of the seminal 1970s jail sitcom, starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale.

The move comes as bosses look for innovative ways to cut re-offending. In a pioneering scheme at HMP The Mount in Bovingdon, Herts, inmates act as in-house assistant chaplains. Jailbirds who successfully make the leap of faith will bag a level 4 higher education certificate in theology from Westminster Theological College.

Another project sees young offenders encouraged to try their hand at angling on the banks of a lake in the grounds of HMP Wetherby in West Yorkshire. Inmates and staff have helped to “landscape” the lake, which is said to be fully stocked with fish. And at category C HMP Isis in Thamesmead, south east London, inmates can train as barbers. If followed elsewhere, it could see thousands of lags handed scissors, razors and brushes. Cons are even getting lessons on how to make small talk with customers, pick the correct hair dye and treat scalps.