BBC – Surrey Prison recipe book compiled after university study
Bob Dale
BBC News, South East
A cookbook based on recipes devised by women prisoners has been published.
The book, Beyond Porridge, has been compiled following a three-year study by researchers at the University of Surrey, who interviewed 80 women in four different prisons.
The researchers discovered prisoners improvised, particularly using kettles in cells, to supplement their meals.
Recipes in the book include Oreo cheesecake, pudding in a mug and kettle chow mein.
Dr Maria Adams, associate professor in criminology, said: “Food represents a range of meanings for women in prison.
“We identified that food can be a mechanism of control that hinders choice and agency, and there needs to be more of a conversation about increasing the food budget to create wider opportunities around food in prison.”
Kirstie Hall, business and community engagement manager at HM Prison Send near Ripley, said: “The experiences and feelings that food can bring go far beyond simply a need to avoid hunger or to provide energy.
“The research showed there is an emotional effect of the types of food available, and there is a desire for wider, healthier, and more culturally diverse options.
“At HMP Send, we are planning on increasing the amount of prison-grown produce from the horticulture department.”
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Project partner Koestler Arts announce our exhibition
We’re delighted to be partnered with Koestler Arts to help the Doing Porridge project reach a wider audience. This year, Koestler Arts celebrates the 60th anniversary of their annual Awards, demonstrating creative work from people in criminal justice settings including prisons, young offender institutions and probation, as well as secure hospitals, secure children’s homes, and immigration removal centres. The Awards encourage participation in the arts, providing an opportunity for thousands of entrants each year to share their writing, music, design, and visual artwork.
During the Doing Porridge project, we will be holding arts workshops as part of our data collection. These will be facilitated by fabulously talented artist, Erika Flowers, who has herself had work exhibited in previous Koestler Awards. Art from these workshops will be showcased in an exhibition jointly hosted with Koestler Arts next year, alongside selected submissions from entrants to this year’s Awards submitted from anyone identifying as a woman.
In partnering with the Doing Porridge project, Koestler Arts have set this year’s themed category as ‘Taste’. Announcing our partnership, they have noted that:
“Food is often a popular topic for Koestler Awards entrants and for this year’s Koestler Awards we have made our themed category ‘Taste’ to encourage even more entries.”
We’re hugely excited to be collaborating with Koestler Arts and looking forward to sharing more details of the exhibition later in the year. In the meantime, please head over to Koestler Art’s project page to read more about our collaboration and the 2022 Awards.
25 Jan 2022
Read all about it!
We’re delighted to announce that The Conversation has published a story written by our project lead, Maria Adams with Erin Power and Jon Garland about our exhibition and the art workshops. You can read the article here, with thanks to Savannah Photographic Ltd for the images used in the article.
The history of researching women in the criminal justice system
This month saw two important dates: International Women’s Day and Mothering Sunday. As March draws to a close, this blog from our placement student Maddy Hunt brings us a topical reflection
Launching our Art Exhibition
We’re exited to be unveiling our exhibition, On My Plate, which we are jointly running with Koestler Arts. The free exhibition opens at South Hill Park Arts Centre this weekend (21st January 2023) and will run until March. It features artworks from the study as well as entries to recent Koestler Awards Taste theme from…
The Impact of Covid-19 on Food in Prison
By Amelia Hoy Covid-19 has had an unprecedented and detrimental impact on society as a whole, but prisons have been even more susceptible to the impacts of the pandemic. As identified by the World Health Organisation (2020:1) people in prison are ‘more vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak than the general population’ due to the close…
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Introducing our first Blog Post
17th September 2021
We are pleased to announce the launch of Doing Porridge: Understanding women’s experiences of food in prison, an ERSC funded project undertaken in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey.
According to a 2016 HM Prison Inspectorate report, food in prison is vital to prisoners’ physical, mental and emotional well-being, not only for nourishment but for providing structure to the day. It is also a crucial point of interaction between staff and those who are incarcerated. As such, our objectives are to:
- explore the relationship between food and social identities (such as gender, social class, ethnicity, religion, nationality);
- understand and explore the different spaces where food is consumed in women’s prisons;
- explore the extent to which women have opportunities to show agency in their food choices and practices;
- examine the ways in which food is used as ‘illicit currency’;
- assess the extent to which food is a source of discontent and dissent among prisoners;
- make policy and practice recommendations to improve food practices in the female estate.
The fieldwork for this research will take place in four women’s prisons and the team will use a mixture of methodologies to engage with the women, including focus groups, qualitative interviews, observations, diary-keeping and an art workshop. We have partnered with Koestler Arts – a charity that promotes creativity in prisons – to exhibit art made during the workshops. This will allow us to communicate with audiences outside of academia, and to encourage wider interest a debate about the quality of food in prison in the country. The exhibition will be open to the public, and those unable to attend will be able to view it via a ‘virtual tour’ of the exhibition uploaded onto the project website. In addition, Koestler Arts have set ‘Taste’ as the topic for their themed category within their annual competition, leading to ongoing impact from the research. This will be an art competition which will be open to all prisons and the chosen finalists will be able to display their work at the planned exhibition.
The research will be supported by two advisory groups, one comprised of prison governors, academics and third sector organisations, and the other made up of women from the four prisons we will be undertaking fieldwork in. Both groups will meet regularly to advise and oversee the direction of the research, as well as being an important audience for the dissemination of the research findings.
In order to keep a wide range of audiences up to date with the development of the project, we will be sharing information on our website, through this blog, on social media and through a podcast.
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Doing Porridge 