Posted: April 27th, 2011 - 2:32pm
Source: Littlehampton Gazette

A food poisoning outbreak has been traced back to Ford Prison’s “unsuitable” and “out-dated” kitchen.
Thirteen inmates were taken ill after eating in the canteen, which watchdogs claim should have been replaced years ago.
The Gazette understands the outbreak has been investigated by Arun District Council, but the council would not confirm this, nor whether it was considering legal action against the prison authorities.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman confirmed that 13 inmates at Ford had been affected by food poisoning.
Last month, in a damning report, following an inspection of the prison carried out in December, HM Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick raised concerns about the standard of catering at Ford.
He said: “Most prisoners we spoke to said that the quality of the food was variable and the food that we sampled was of low to average quality.”
He added: “The kitchen was dirty during our night visit.”
Ford’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) also cricitised Ford’s kitchen in its last two reports, the latest, for 2009/10, being published just weeks after the prison’s New Year’s Day riot.
In the report, chairman Charles Pinney said that despite concerns being raised, the building of a new kitchen had been put back by a year.
“We have commented before on the unsuitability of the kitchen and are pleased to note that the funding for the proposed new kitchen is still in place, although the building of it has been pushed into 2011,” he said.