For many across the UK, Christmas dinner is seen as the best part of the holiday season – when we tuck into a festive roast surrounded by their loved ones.
However, it has now been revealed what the nation’s most notorious prisoners will feast on for their tea today. As reported by the Mirror, the average amount of money spent on feeding a prisoner a day in 2023 was £2.68. This is less than a high-street coffee and certainly makes it tricky to put on a traditional Christmas spread.
Prison meals may not be regarded as fine dining – however, many catering teams across UK jails make an effort to mark the festive season for inmates behind bars. Our sister title has obtained festive menus for three notorious prisons – HMP New Hall, HMP Woodhill, HMP Wakefield and HMP Frankland – through a Freedom of Information request.
These prisons are home to some of the country’s most dangerous and violent inmates including serial killer Rose West, triple murderer Levi Bellfield, disgraced rapist cop Wayne Couzens, prolific necrophiliac David Fuller and Robert Maudsley.
HMP New Hall
HMP New Hall in Flockton, West Yorkshire, is home to Rose West – who is currently behind bars for the murder of at least one young woman. The prison was also home to baby killer Lucy Letby at one point before she moved to HMP Bronzefield at the beginning of 2024. Tragic Star Hobson’s mum Frankie Smith is also serving her sentence at the 381-capacity jail.
This year for Christmas lunch, inmates at HMP New Hall will get to choose from:
- Moroccan vegan roast
- Salmon & dill fishcake
- Roast turkey with pigs in blankets, sage and onion stuffing
The three lunch options all come with roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and carrots, and gravy. For dessert, inmates can pick between Christmas pudding or fruit salad served with ice cream.
For their tea, West and other inmates will get to pick between:
- Vegan cheese and pickle stottie
- Egg mayo stottie
- Ham and tomato stottie
Other items on the menu include Christmas cake crisps, gingerbread tiffin apple juice, biscuit and coffee.
HMP Frankland
HMP Frankland, in County Durham, is home to more than 800 prisoners and has been dubbed ‘Monster Mansion’ due to many of its inmates being convicted murderers, high-risk sex offenders and those guilty of terrorism-related offences.
Killers Levi Bellfield, Wayne Couzens, David Fuller and Ian Huntley call ‘Monster Mansion’ home.
Frankland opened in 1983 and only holds male prisoners who are over 21 years of age, and whose sentence is usually four years or more, as well as life sentences and high-risk remand prisoners. They are all housed in single cells that include a TV, washbasin and toilet facilities. Prisoners are rewarded for their good behaviour with game consoles and DVD players.
The most recent Christmas menu the Mirror was able to obtain from a Freedom of Information request was for 2023 and is full of festive delights.
Prisoners have these choices for Christmas lunch:
- Vegan festive cranberry casserole
- Halal diced pepper beef casserole
- Roast turkey and gammon chipotle sausage and stuffing
- Salmon and sauce
And for dessert, inmates will get to pick between Christmas pudding and custard or a fruit cocktail.
For their Christmas Day tea, Bellfield and Fuller will get to choose between:
- Spicy bean Mexican roll
- Cheese savoury roll
- Tuna mayo roll
- Chicken pasta salad
Other options include a mince pie, satsuma, gingerbread man, crisps and apple juice.
HMP Wakefield
HMP Wakefield is home to some of the country’s most notorious killers as well as its most depraved criminals.
Prolific rapist Reynhard Sinaga and Lostprophets paedophile Ian Watkins call the high-security prison home alongside other dangerous inmates.
One of the worst of the lot is Robert Maudsley. Maudsley has been in jail since he was 21 after he murdered convicted child molester John Farrell, 30, back in 1974. He has killed a number of his fellow inmates and it was suggested – without evidence – that Maudsley also ate the brains of his victim. Instead of sitting in a cell though, Maudsley is deemed so dangerous that he has spent over 16,500 consecutive days in isolation, in an underground glass box.
For Christmas lunch this year, inmates will get to pick between:
- A festive vegan slice
- Potato, spinach, cheese and chive roll,
- Halal hot and spicy chicken fillet
- Roast turkey, stuffing fall and sausage wrapped in bacon
The side options also include:
- Roast potatoes
- Sprouts
- Carrots
- Gravy
Inmates will also get the choice to have a vegan Christmas pudding and white sauce.
For their Christmas tea, prisoners will get to pick between:
- Vegan sausage roll and vegan strip bap
- Halal sausage roll and halal turkey and cheese bap
- Sausage roll and turkey and ham bap
All prisoners get a grab pack that includes a fruit cake slice, apple juice, gingerbread reindeer, mince pie, a bag of crisps, satsuma and a packet of biscuits.
HMP Woodhill
HMP Woodhill, in Milton Keynes, has been compared to Alcatraz, the notorious California prison. Designed especially to house some of the UK’s more dangerous and violent offenders, the category A prison has been open since 1992 and has seen its fair share of hardened criminals pass through its doors. One of its most well-known inmates is Charles Bronson, who is known as ‘Britain’s most violent prisoner.
Prisoners at HMP Woodhill will have a selection of food to choose from for their Christmas lunch, including:
- Moroccan-style vegan roast
- Non-Halal sliced turkey
- Cajun-spiced sweet potato roulade
- Halal half chicken
- Salmon and dill fish cake
- Non-Halal Pig in blankets
- Banana
- Cranberry gravy
- Roast potatoes
- Yorkshire Pudding
- Mixed vegetables
- Vegan sausage roll
- Pork cranberry stuffing gourmet sausage roll
- Cheese and onion slice
- Halal chicken balti Pie
- Tuna mayo
- 1X can drink
- 1X sandwich bap
Dessert options include:
- Mango and orange ice smoothies
- Chocolate bar
- Chocolate-coated ice cream Christmas tree