Food in Prisons

A psychologist, ex-prisoner and prison food reformer discuss the food prisoners are fed inside British correctional institutions, and why it might be impacting rehabilitation.

Leading psychologist Kimberley Wilson chairs a discussion with a former prisoner Sophie Barton-Hawkins and Lucy Vincent, who set up Food Behind Bars, a charity campaigning for bigger budgets for better food.

They discuss the reality of prison foods, what prisoners actually eat, how it impacts on their physical and mental health, and on reoffending rates.

Sophie Barton-Hawkins served three years of lengthy concurrent sentences across three different female prisons. She has first-hand experience of the state of food inside, and the effect it has on prisoners’ health. She witnessed a cloth being pulled out of a pot of food at the servery and found the food ‘cold, carby and poor quality’. Today she is a passionate advocate for prison reform and restorative justice and uses her own experiences to help transform the system.

Kimberley Wilson is a Chartered Psychologist and author of How to Build a Healthy Brain. Alongside working in private practice in central London, Kimberley is a Governor of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Mental Health Trust and led the therapy service at HMP & YOI Holloway, which at the time was Europe’s largest women’s prison. Kimberley’s philosophy of Whole Body Mental Health is a comprehensive approach to mental health care, integrating evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle factors with psychological therapy. Her degree in nutrition informs her approach of looking at the roles food and lifestyle play in our mental health, including disordered eating, the gut-brain axis and our emotional relationship with food. Kimberley hosts the podcast Made of Stronger Stuff alongside Dr Xand van Tulleken on BBC Radio 4. She was a finalist on the Great British Bake Off and is a regular contributor to Lorraine on ITV.

Lucy Vincent is the Chief Executive and Founder of Food Behind Bars, the UK's only charity dedicated to transforming the food served in British prisons. After a career in journalism and hospitality, Lucy ventured into the world of prison food in 2016 after reading a report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons which detailed the impact poor quality food was having on the country's prison population. Since then she has worked in prisons nationally, delivering a range of holistic food-based projects centred around the belief that wholesome and nutritious food can change lives. Food Behind Bars' work has been featured in the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, BBC Two, TEDX and British Vogue.