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Inmates at the Isle of Man Prison will be tucking in to a special menu to ring in the New Year.
Lags will start the first day of 2025 with a sausage bap or cereal for breakfast before moving on to a full chicken dinner with gravy at lunchtime, with other options available for vegetarians, as well as a chocolate fudge cake for dessert.
They’ll finish January 1 (on Wednesday) with a plated finger buffet for tea followed by a blueberry crumble muffin.
The Jurby prison’s New Year’s Day menu has been published after Media Isle of Man submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request.
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Menus showing what prisoners ate on Christmas Day and Boxing Day this year have also been released as part of the request.
The menu sheet, which is understood to have been made available to view to inmates before Christmas, features the message ‘Merry Xmas to one and all’ at the bottom.
The FOI response did not reveal how much the festive and New Year meals cost.
However, it did say there was ‘no additional cost’ to the meals as they are all prepared from pre-stocked ingredients held at the prison’s kitchens.
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New Year’s Day Menu
On New Year’s Day, prisoners can look forward to a choice of:
- Breakfast: Cereal or a sausage bap.
- Lunch: Roast chicken breast with vegetables and gravy, or Glamorgan sausage with sage and onion stuffing, carrots, and new potatoes. For dessert, there is chocolate fudge cake.
- Dinner (or tea, as described in the menu): A plated finger buffet followed by a blueberry crumble muffin.
Christmas Day Menu
Prisoners also enjoyed a festive Christmas feast while many islanders tucked into their own turkey dinners. On Christmas Day, the menu featured:
- Breakfast: Cereal or sausage bap.
- Lunch: Roast turkey breast with cranberry sauce, sage and onion stuffing, gravy, brussels sprouts, and roast potatoes. The vegetarian option was two nutless roast slices. For dessert, there was Christmas pudding.
- Dinner: A finger buffet followed by mince pies and tangerines.
Boxing Day Menu
The festive meals continued on Boxing Day, with prisoners served:
- Breakfast: Cereal or a bacon bap.
- Lunch: Gammon steak with pineapple and chips, or a vegetable burger. Dessert was a vanilla slice.
- Dinner: Another plated finger buffet, finished with a chocolate muffin.
Special diets and budgeting
The prison confirmed that all special or religious diets are catered for, ensuring inclusivity during the festive season.
However, when asked about the overall cost of plating up the Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day dinners, the FOI response stated: ‘While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find records you have requested’.
The response explained that the meals are prepared using pre-stocked ingredients within the existing prison budget, with no additional costs incurred.
The FoI response cited Part 2, Section 8(3) of the Freedom of Information Act, which does not require public authorities to create or derive information they do not already hold.