question how does food make you feel and
when I say feel I don’t just mean
physically but emotionally to some foods
make you happy
perhaps some foods not make you so happy
maybe there’s a food that helps you work
harder or improves your attention span I
want you to imagine that you’ve woken up
in the morning and you’ve got out of bed
you’ve put the coffee on and you’re
going to make yourself something for
breakfast now for me it can be something
as simple as a nice bit of toast covered
in butter with a soft-boiled egg on top
and a cup of tea and when I eat this
breakfast and leave the house I feel
satisfied energized and ready to start
the day now I want you to think about
the alternative
maybe you’ve woken up and there’s
nothing in the house so you you leave on
an empty stomach
or maybe it’s lunchtime and you’re on
the go and you grab a supermarket
sandwich or packet of crisps or
something that doesn’t really fill you
up or maybe the opposite maybe you eat
something really heavy for lunch and
you’ve got to go and sit your desk after
and get on with work how does that make
you feel what I’m trying to say here is
that food is a really powerful tool it
can set the course for our whole day it
can make us feel sluggish and tired or
it can build us up energize us and give
us fuel it can affect our attention span
it can affect our mood it can even
affect our relationships and I know I’m
a much better person to be around when
I’ve had a decent meal now I want to ask
you the same question how does food make
you feel but this time I want you to
imagine that you’re in prison now if
you’re in prison right now in 2018 you
might be in yourself or anywhere up to
23 hours a day your exercise and fresh
air is limited to a certain period of
time in a small yard I don’t need to
tell you that prison can be a really
intense environment there’s violence and
disruption and danger pretty much 24/7
if you were in prison now in 2018 you
are more likely to have them end
health problem they’re not to have one
you may have lived a chaotic life before
prison you’re more likely to have been
in care to have been a victim of sexual
abuse or to come from a deprived
background where something like healthy
eating just never factored in right now
sat in your cell you may have a very
long sentence ahead of you now
considering all of this something like
food to you and I might seem really
insignificant in an environment like
prison however it’s actually a really
big deal now these are the questions
that I asked myself a year or so ago
when I launched food behind bars which
is my national campaign to improve
prison food in the UK before I launch my
campaign I’d never been to a prison I’d
never met a prisoner and everything I
knew about the subject was based on what
I’d seen on TV or read in newspapers my
backgrounds actually in the fashion
industry and in journalism and it was
the journalist in me that brought me to
the subject in late 2016 so I was on my
laptop doing some research browsing not
really doing anything and I came across
an official report that was called life
in prison food now the report was
assessing food quality across prisons in
the UK and it highlighted a huge amount
of issues the general conclusion was
that food standards in prison had been
on a steady decline inspectors noted
that there weren’t enough fresh fruit
and vegetables there were way too many
carbohydrates portion sizes were small
breakfast was inadequate
there was no communal dining and variety
was quite limited for me the most
interesting part about the whole report
is that they were linking a drop in food
standards to a drop in prison standards
basically implying that poor nutrition
was having an impact on everything from
mental health to disruptive behavior and
high reoffending rates and it was all
summed up in this one sentence prisoners
eating well is not just a matter of
prisoner well-being but is of practical
and financial concern to the Prison
Service now I became pretty fired up
about the subject quite quickly
I pitched the idea of an article based
around what prison is 8 to an editor
broke the article and had a really good
response after it was published and
after it was published I felt like I
wasn’t quite done with the subject and
that there was more to say and more
importantly no one was actually talking
about it so I wanted to campaign now
prison is a really closed off world
pretty much the only people who know
what’s going on are inside it and my
first thought when I launched the
campaign was I need to speak to as many
people as possible who are eating this
food or have eaten it and in the last
year or so I’ve spent a lot of time in
prisons talking to inmates talking to ex
inmates and spending time with the
people who are actually cooking the food
and there’s been a couple of
ex-prisoners along the way who’ve really
influenced me and pushed my campaign
forward and I thought I’d share a couple
of stories with you
the first one is Sophie so Sophie was
the first person I spoke to when I
launched my campaign and she spent three
years in prison and since she’s come out
she avoids processed food she even has
an allotment where she cooks vegetables
sari grows vegetables her and her family
and this is what she had to say you know
when you have a weekend off and eat
pizzas and drink beer and you feel like
crap imagine feeling that way for three
years and it being completely out of
your control now Sophie reckons she put
on about five stone in prison she had to
take laxatives everyday to help her pass
the food and she had quite a few friends
in orange is the new black style who
actually changed religion in the hope
that it would get them better food
during my last year when I was on home
leave I remember leaving prison and the
first thing I did was popping some
Morrison’s and buy a shitload of salad
and chicken breast I made myself a
little salad and ate it on the train
home even now I absolutely love salad
because I just didn’t have it in prison
now the second person is Tim I sat on
the phone to Tim for what felt like
hours and he told me about his 16 years
in prison and Tim described the poor
quality of food as soul destroying it
grinds you down he said he also said
this
new evolves around for weeks what tends
to happen is you pick something that’s
vaguely edible and you just eat the same
thing every time in the long term the
poor quality small portion and lack of
variety becomes a real chore now Tim was
convinced that improving prisoner diet
would actually improve life in prison
and he thought that a better diet was
crucial if prisoners wanted to go on and
lead better lives
many of us myself included went into
prison with a very unhealthy lifestyle I
was a drug user he said but there comes
a point when you want to evolve as a
person so as you get healthier and you
want to change your life
food is one thing that’s very difficult
to change now you may all be thinking
the same thing at this point which is
why should you care these people
prisoners they’re criminals
why should you care if they well or not
and you’re probably wondering as well
why I care which is a very valid
question well I’m a big believer in the
power of food not just for our bodies
but for our minds as well and for me a
decent meal can mean the difference
between a good day and a bad day and
over the years it’s been statistically
proven that eating a healthier diet can
impact every single area of our lives
from improving our lifespan to
preventing depression and making us
better workers and learners so I found
it really strange that here’s an
environment home to some of society’s
most vulnerable and mentally unstable
people and yet their diet was not being
used as a tool that could help improve
this and improve prison life and this
would be all well and good if the prison
system was working in the way that it
should however in modern history things
have arguably never been so bad and
here’s some statistics to prove that
last year 344 people died in prison and
this is the highest number since records
began assaults on staff in prison have
risen over 88 percent in the last two
years 44% of adults are reconvicted
within one year of leaving prison and
rates of self-harm are at the highest
level ever recorded now to contradict
all of this since 2010 the prison
services
a budget cut of 40% and this is the
biggest budget cut across all public
services and prison food budget has also
suffered as a result of this not so long
ago the spending per head per day in
prison was around two pound two P and
what’s happened is that when a service
is trying to make budget cuts something
suffer so now what happens is prisons
have the autonomy to pick their own food
budgets
and I’ve witnessed instances where it’s
as low as 1 pound 80 1 pound 84 and
that’s for three meals a day now
Society has undergone a massive food
revolution in the last few decades every
day we’re bombarded with messages of
healthy food and this diet can make you
live longer be happier and have more
successful relationships however when it
comes to prison this concept has been
completely forgotten and to understand
this a little more clearly I need you to
flashback 13 years ago and to this
picture you might recognize it but it’s
from a TV program called Jamie’s school
dinners and this was aired 13 years ago
on channel 4 and Jamie’s school dinners
was was much more than just a TV program
it was a huge movement to improve school
food in the UK and Jamie Oliver decided
that as a country we were feeding our
schoolchildren rubbish and he was right
he went into a South London secondary
school and found that no fresh food was
being prepared instead there were
chicken nuggets pizzas burgers turkey
Twizzlers stuff a bit like this and
Jamie was convinced that there was a
direct link between the way children
were behaving in the classroom and what
they’re eating in the canteen and once
again he was right Jamie school dinners
has generally been seen as a huge
success since the revolution in school
food children are achieving better test
results and taking less days off sick
kids are generally karma and therefore
more able to learn and crucially
improving the way that children eat in
school has
she helped improve their lives outside
of school so by giving them better food
in school it actually means that when
they leave the school date school gate
sorry or when they end up leaving home
eventually they’ve got more of a chance
of achieving a better quality of life of
living a longer healthier life and
succeeding in work and education now
once again you may all be thinking the
same thing which is it’s a no-brainer
that our children should be eating well
they are the future of tomorrow they
deserved the best start in life and
crucially they are young innocent people
now innocence isn’t really a word that
you’d usually associate with prison the
people inside prison have committed
crimes often terrible crimes hurting
others and making poor decisions why do
they deserve to eat well now if you’re
thinking this then you’re not alone and
there are a lot of people in this
country who don’t think that prisoners
should eat well or be treated well for
that matter and I found this out when I
went on the BBC to debate the subject
live with MPs this was a really positive
experience and I got a huge amount of
support
however inevitably there were a lot of
people who didn’t agree with what I was
saying and I found this out when I went
through some of the social media
comments after but to better understand
the way that this country sees prison
and prisoners not everyone but a lot of
people and I thought I’d read you some
of the comments if you don’t like the
food don’t commit the crimes
I thought prison was supposed to be
punishment suggestions bread water cold
soup raw Apple milk they are in there
for punishment not enjoyment if they
don’t offend they can stay at home and
enjoy healthy meals if it was me they
would get bread water and gruel and live
in a cell with no luxury items I’m old
school like that if the food is so
dreadful why does so many of them return
time after time it’s not supposed to be
Claridge’s maybe if they were hungrier
they would have time to shout and scream
now when I get these kind of comments I
completely understand where they’re
coming from it’s a really controversial
subject
however all that I’m trying to do and
all I want to do with my campaign is to
raise awareness and to get people to see
the bigger picture as a country we have
the highest reoffending rates in Europe
almost half the people that are leaving
prison are ending up back in there
within a year huge budget cuts have
meant that people are leaving prison in
a worse state than when they entered and
for me it really begs the question what
is prison actually for if we want it to
work properly it should be a tool to
rehabilitate these people to make sure
that when they’re being released they’re
not going on and making the same choices
and mistakes again what it shouldn’t be
is a human warehouse where we store
people feed them bread and water release
them into society and expect them to
magically go on and lead healthy
law-abiding lives and it’s the prison
services job to rehabilitate these
people now I don’t know anything that
influences our health
sorry influences that can change
rehabilitation more than our health and
well-being
um I want to read you a quote and it’s
by a Russian philosopher and an author I
can’t pronounce his name but the quotes
really good it says we can judge the
level of civilization in a society by
the way it treats its prisoners and and
I think this quote still stands up today
if we want to live in a civilized
society where our homes and our families
and our possessions are as safe as
possible we need to look to our prisons
the way that prison runs has a direct
impact on all of our lives whether we’re
aware of it or not and eventually these
people are going to be released back
into our neighborhoods and we would all
benefit from them making a positive
contribution to society and not a
negative now we can’t expect people to
go on and lead successful lives if we
don’t feed them well and educate people
about food and we certainly can’t expect
people to go on and turn their lives
around if we don’t feed them well and
educate them about food now you only
have to turn on the news to see that our
prison system is
in crisis and hopefully that will lead
to a complete reform in the way that we
run prisons in our country and my aim
with food behind bars is to make sure
that when this happens food is not just
part of it
but is integral to it thank you very
much [Applause]