Creating a lean, un-mean, non-violence machine

While yesterday’s papers focused on Martin Narey’s (the erstwhile heard of the Prison Service, now chief executive of Barnardos – once he ran prisons now he runs orphanages, hmmm) accusation that former Home Secretary David Blunkett had screamed for rioting prisoners to be machine gunned (in 2002) another prison related article went virtually unnoticed.

The Home Office has been accused of delaying new research that aims to reduce violence in Britain's overcrowded prisons by up to 40%. The former chief inspector of prisons, Lord Ramsbotham (left), said yesterday that the department was guilty of "breathtaking prevarication" over a proposed trial to improve prisoners' nutrition, which he believes would dramatically reduce offending behaviour in jails.

Scientific work conducted by the charity Natural Justice in 2002
demonstrated a causal link between bad diet and the number of violent incidents at Aylesbury young offenders' institution. In a double blind placebo controlled trial, the number of incidents dropped when prisoners were given multivitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. Since then the charity and researchers have been trying to get the go-ahead to repeat the trial on a larger scale at other prisons. They have secured more than £1m funding from an independent research charity, and the prison service confirmed that it had identified two prisons to take part, but the work has been allegedly been blocked by delays at the Home Office.

"It would cost roughly £3.5m to give the correct balance of nutrients, either through proper diet or supplements across the prison service. For that you could have up to 40% reduction in violent behaviour. So why isn't the Home Office embracing it?" Lord Ramsbotham said . "If the correct mix of diet reduces offending behaviour - and I am absolutely convinced there is a direct link between diet and antisocial behaviour - it's hugely important for prisoners, it frees up staff time for rehabilitation."

A spokesman for the Home Office said all research was subject to approval by the department's project quality approval board. The government was committed to offering all prisoners a healthy diet and provided at least one low-fat, low-sugar option on every menu.

Actually this is not a new story as can be seen from this BBC Report from 2003. Back then the Prison Service stated that while it has agreed to further studies in two prisons it had not accepted the findings of the original study and would not be putting any money into further research. In 2002 the Lancet published a report that diet may help reduce the incidence of prison suicides. Perhaps the study does show a false positive but it is worth conducting a larger test to find out one way or another . If it does turn out that a simple dietary change is all that is needed to make a substantial reduction in violent behaviour then it is money well spent.

Lord Ramsbotham prison violence