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An investigation was launched after the state’s spending watchdog uncovered a bill of nearly 10,000 euros for inmates who cooked steaks, roast ribs, lamb shanks and serrano ham along with fancy chocolate.
Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Seamus McCarthy has reviewed bills for food purchased by prison authorities for use in inmate catering classes, which help staff prepare daily prison meals.
In his latest report on Public Service Accounts, McCarthy noted that it is against the prison service policy to serve “high value items” in prison kitchens or classrooms.
“However, there was evidence of a difference in the type of food purchased in a prison,” he found.
“In that case, the products purchased included a number of luxury items, such as steaks, rib roasts, boneless leg of lamb, serrano ham and expensive catering chocolate.”
The prison governor, who was not identified in the report, has launched an investigation “to determine the circumstances surrounding the expense,” McCarthy said.
The Penitentiary Service told C&AG that the luxury food bill amounted to 9,302 euros during 2018 and last year.
High end rate
The deluxe rate was purchased “to support the provision of cooking classes to prisoners,” they told him.
“However, since the return of the job training activity to the headquarters of the Penitentiary Service, it has not been possible to be definitive about what activity was being carried out or if there were official events for the use of some of the products listed,” he said. McCarthy.
Since the discovery, a tightening of controls on the order of food in prisons has been ordered throughout the country.
Last year, 8.2 million euros were spent on feeding prisoners, and the food bill increased by 11% over the previous year. The increase can be explained in part by rising costs for some foods and a 2 percent increase in the average daily number of inmates from 3,893 in 2018 to 3,971 in 2019, according to the report.
The cost varies from prison to prison. Feeding inmates in the maximum security prison in Portlaoise, where some inmates have special menu options for “historical and political reasons”, costs up to 60% more than in other prisons.
Tuck stores
The report also found that inmates made more than 1 million euros of profit through the prison’s supply stores last year.
The stores, which sell candy, soda, tobacco, toiletries, magazines and other items, are run by prison officials for profit and the proceeds go back to inmates through welfare funds.
Castlerea’s tuck shop is the shrewdest, with gross profit margins of 21%, compared to the less business-savvy Midlands prison, which posted a profit of 8%.
Mr. McCarthy expressed concern that some expenses from the store’s earnings were “not in line” with how they should be used.
“This included some payments for the benefit of staff and payments related to the operation of the prison,” he said.
For several months in 2018, two prisons transferred cash totaling 23,000 euros to a “governors cash box” that was “used according to the instructions of the respective governors.”
“In both jails, the record keeping was not detailed enough to show that the cash was used in all cases for appropriate purposes” for the inmate welfare fund, C&AG found.
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