Is a better diet in custody a recipe for success?
Howard Williamson
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
A doctor and writer with the wonderfully exotic name of Theodore Dalrymple once observed that young people coming out of young offender institutions were probably considerably healthier than when they went in - indeed, often more than they had ever been in their lives.
He based his observation on the energy and spirit they appeared to have on release, compared with their sluggish personas on admission. He put this down to the presence of a regular diet instead of the casual "grazing" in which such young people tended to indulge on the outside.
Dalrymple may have had a point, but my experience of eating with young offenders in custody is that their diet is generally a stodgy one. Only recently, for the first time, did I witness the inclusion of fruit. Otherwise, I have queued up with lads in various places to be landed with pie and chips, backed up by a mountain of cheap white bread covered generously in margarine. I have often wondered whether or not this consumption does, indeed, affect their attitude and behaviour, and whether something different might make them more alert or less aggressive. After all, as they say, you are what you eat.
There are, of course, a host of budgetary, as well as motivational, implications around experimenting with the diets of young prisoners. What will it cost? Will they eat it? Yet there is meticulous attention to other aspects of their physical health. For some, it is the first time in their lives that they will have been subjected to a full health screening, eye tests and a dental check-up. So it is only one step further, and consistent with what is going on in the wider context of young people's lives, to pay attention to what they are eating.
To that end, I was pleased to learn that the Stein brothers - one the well-known celebrity chef Rick and the other, John, a professor of physiology - have established an initiative in Polmont Young Offender Institution in Scotland that aims to evaluate changes in diet on young people's behaviour. The critical ingredient will be fish oil, which apparently stimulates the brain. Some young people will take it, others will receive a placebo. Their aggressive behaviour and capacity to concentrate and learn, among other things, will be monitored and recorded.
It may turn out to be a simple trick - perhaps more expensive than the per capita dietary allowances currently available, but phenomenally cheaper than many other things that are being tried in reducing re-offending and putting young people on the path to success.
- Howard Williamson is professor of European youth policy at the University of Glamorgan. Email howard.williamson@haymarket.com.
