HMP Isle of Wight is a cluster of three prisons, based just outside Newport. In 2007 it became necessary for all three to have their existing kitchen, which was located within HMP Parkhurst, upgraded. A decision was taken to build a single large kitchen outside the security estate, to service the requirement of them all. This new unit opened five months ago; it is not one of the standard kitchen designs. It incorporates design features, which enable it to fulfil the requirements as the only kitchen for 1700 inmates in three prisons, on an island, which is a couple of miles off the coast of southern Britain.

The day I visited, was truly the Isle of Wight! For the first time for as long as anyone could remember, the island was completely covered in snow. Piles of snow 8 feet high were on the ferry dock, and the roads around the prison were covered in slush and was difficult to navigate. It reminded me how remote the prisons could be from the mainland.
The new kitchen has been built towards the rear prison estate. It is surrounded by 3 metre high fencing and is managed by ex-Royal Navy Chef, David Clough. On arrival at the gate to the kitchen compound, I used the intercom and David appeared and let me in, instructing me to park next to the huge piles of snow that temporarily covered the delivery van cleaning area.

When you arrived at Parkhurst in 1990, what facilities were available in the kitchen and how many people did you have to feed?

David Clough It was one of the old type galley kitchens! Running on steam with a great big rotary bread oven! It was getting old and tired and the rules were changing on Crown immunity, environmental health and health and safety. We had to do ongoing work to keep the kitchen functional and legal. There had been a major disturbance some years prior to my joining and many of the upper wings were vacant, awaiting refurbishment. The number of inmates was down to about 200.

So what was the thinking behind the setting up of just one kitchen for all three prisons? I believe you now cater to some 1700. The prisons are close together, so it makes a certain amount of sense however. How did the decision-making process go?

David Clough Even though it is called ‘HM Prison Isle of Wight’ it still retains the three separate prison identities of Albany, Parkhurst at Camp Hill. They have retained their names, but without the HMP prefix. In 1995, plans existed to build three new kitchens, one for each prison. We had started the kitchen at Parkhurst, however, before it was completed, progress on building new facilities at HMP Albany and HMP Camp Hill stopped due to budget constraint. After a short while, a decision was taken to produce food from one kitchen. This was in-line with the Prison Service board’s vision that where prisons exist in close proximity, they give consideration to utilise common facilities wherever possible. Initially, only Parkhurst and Camp Hill were to share a kitchen, which would have catered for approximately 1100 people. Subsequently, Albany was bought into the scheme and it was decided to upgrade the new kitchen within Parkhurst to cater for up to 1700 people. This was achieved by providing additional catering pods as the population increased.
After twelve years the decision was taken to provide the new kitchen we are now working from.

That must make you one of the biggest catering units in the country! What levels of equipment do you have to deliver that service?

David Clough If you follow the flow of produce and product through the kitchen, as you enter the goods inwards entrance, you have a large freezer, next door to that is a large ready food fridge, then there is a very large dry store. Next to that is a dairy fridge. You would have noticed that many of the freezers and storage areas have very low quantities of stock in them. This is because I operate only one day in advance and order accordingly. In the main kitchen area, we have eight combination ovens with 20 grids, plus 4 combination ovens with 40 grids. We also have three gas barbecues, 12 fryers, two variomatic boilers, three 75 litre gas boilers, three 75ltr electric boilers, one gas four burner stove, one electric hob and oven, plus four electric bratt pans. Half of the equipment is electric, powered and the other half is gas.  This is deliberate and enables us to be able to function should we lose one energy source. Once food has been prepared, it is then put into heated trolleys, for distribution to the three different establishments by the trucks you see parked outside and all cooking utensils are taken through into the pot washing area, where one person operates both machines.

Did you have any choice in the make of equipment?

David Clough I had some input because of the unique situation we have here on the Isle of Wight. This being the three prisons clustered together, the isolation from the mainland with its inherent problems over backup. I was asked what I would need in order for the kitchen to function as expected. I was invited to headquarters, where I saw the plans and told them what I thought I would need, in order to make this operation work properly. All of my suggestions were taken up. Though I didn’t have a choice in the make of equipment here, it is all Electrolux kit.

You don’t have very many staff for the 1700 inmates you are cooking for. How do you achieve this?

David Clough This is a product of good planning, good workflow, accurate ordering and just in time deliveries. Being outside the prison walls, makes having daily deliveries far easier so I do not hold more than one day’s worth of ingredients in stock. This means that one person can handle goods inwards and because all food is either delivered on trolleys or pallets, it can be quickly and easily moved into storage.  If you look in our fridges and freezers, you will not see much racking. Everything is on trolleys. In the dry store area, it’s all on pallets or trolleys. We have also supplied an electric pallet truck. Everything has been designed so that one person can handle a whole delivery by themselves. We have a limited amount of racking where we store any unused produce and I have lockable racked out area, where I store high value spice and other items, whose supply needs to be restricted, but that is all.
Staff always work one meal in front and using the dry store area for some basic preparation duties (for example counting dietary supplements into individual wings / units and putting together commodities for caterers); they can then begin work on the next meal almost immediately. Caterers request the ingredients for the next meal and the operational support grades quickly supply them using the trolleys they were delivered on. If some of the stock is not required, it goes back into the storage area at the same time that the containers, empty tins and packaging are removed.
When finished, we only require one person in the pot washing area, as the serving trays and heated food trolleys are washed on the wings and only require sterilisation when they are returned to us.

Can you use inmate labour in the kitchen and do you offer training and NVQ’s?

David Clough Yes, we have prisoner labour although, as we’re outside the walls of the prisons, our outworkers have to be released on temporary licence. On the kitchen manning roll at the moment, we have 11 people. To complete the staffing picture, we have myself as Head of Catering, and then I have a deputy Mr Ian Nicholson, two Kitchen Managers, two Security Officers, and eight Catering Industrial Caterers. At present, we do not offer NVQ’s to prisoner outworkers and training is limited. Because all are on temporary license, they are close to the end of their sentence or transfer.
However, we do undertake OCN qualifications and Food Hygiene Qualifications are gained by prisoner outworkers. Today there are eleven people on duty, excluding the managers.
It’s due to the professionalism and commitment of both staff and prisoner outworkers that this operation works so well as the support of the Senior Management Board of HMP Isle of Wight.

In such a large kitchen, how do you deal with special diets?

David Clough We use a combination of separate equipment and good practice to meet their needs. For instance, with regard to Halal requirements, we have different Refrigerators, Meat slicers and processing equipment. These are positioned on the opposite sides of the food processing area. We also vacuum pack certain foods as soon as they are opened and before they are put in the fridge to stop any cross contamination. We use a very similar process for special diets, including vegetarian, vegan diets and those special diets recommended by the medical authorities.

When I first arrived here, you took me upstairs into the plant room. The huge area is full of heat exchangers, ventilation ducts, pumps, pipes and switches. It reminded me of the engine room of the Starship Enterprise! How does the building perform regarding staff comfort, from an environmental perspective?

David Clough The working environment here is very good. It is achieved by using a combination of extraction and ventilation. The systems in the roof void do the job of extracting steam and oil from the prime cooking area. It also extracts the heat from the air and uses its energy to heat air drawn in from the outside. This air is then returned, through ducts around the outside of the kitchen, at a comfortable temperature of 23 degrees. The system is excellent. Above the prime cooking areas, the stainless steel ventilated ceiling has been installed by a company called Britannia. This extraction system contains fat drainage trays along the length of the main canopies. These have to be emptied every six months during a routine deep clean. However, the clean void above the ceiling will prevent fire spreading. It has been known to get cold in here, but that is only when people leave doors open. The ventilation system is designed to operate in a closed unit because it is a sterile area. However, the majority of the time it is very comfortable.

With this number of meals to be prepared, you must generate substantial quantities of waste packaging. How do you recycle all of it?

David Clough We have specific containers for different types of material. We flat pack all of our cardboard, and we have a compactor for all the tins. We have a bunded area where we store all the used fat and oil. When it is changed, it is put back into the containers it came from and they are placed in the bunded area ready for collection by a contractor. This is a unit designed and purchased specifically for the purpose of preventing any contamination of the soil, should there be a leak. Very little waste food is generated in the cooking process and any food left over on the wings is disposed of there.

I noticed that you will have some boxes attached to the wall, with pipes leading down into the drains. What are these for?

David Clough These are fitted in the wash-up area and in the dry stores. They are made by Mechline and automatically feed an enzyme into the drains, that destroys the grease and oil which manages to get past the grease traps. All we need to do is replace a cassette within the box when ‘red’ is seen in the observation window on the unit. It seems a very clever and effective system to keep the drains clear.

When I was given a tour in the roof void amidst all the energy-saving equipment, you mentioned that you also have a wind turbine. How effective is that?

David Clough It is a large unit that was installed when the building was under construction. It produces about 15 kw and when we’re not using the power, it puts it back into the national grid. We are sitting on top of a small hill here, so it makes sense to utilise natural resources.

We’ve already discussed that you run half the kitchen on gas and half on electric and this is necessary because of the prison being based on a relatively small island. What mains services and contingency plans have you in place?

David Clough We have mains gas and electricity here and we also have the wind turbine and a bio-mass hot water plant. If the gas was unavailable, we could cater using the electricity alone. If electricity supply failed, we have our own backup generator. Should there be a catastrophic failure that rendered the kitchen totally unusable, we have an arrangement with a local hospital, that when their patient’s meals had been prepared, we move in and prepare our food using their equipment. If the situation was reversed our kitchen and equipment is available to prepare their patients’ food.

With 1700 mouths to feed on three different sites, meal planning must be a challenge. How do you carry this out?

David Clough It has been difficult to do this effectively.  I’ve just carried out a prison survey to find out what the prisoners think of our work and there preferences of food. The results show that regarding diet, we have three very different food tastes in the three sites. One likes more traditional foods, another likes pasta and the last one likes chips with everything!! Now we know this, we can put the menus together with a greater degree of accuracy. We put out a common menu for the three sites that fits its profiles as best we can. Prisoners order their food 7 days in advance. We receive their choices and order the food accordingly. We are just about to introduce a new electronic scanning system, called Laser-read and its returns will enable us to considerably speed up the process of ordering supplies. Each prisoner will be given a menu card and they will mark their choices for each day of the week. The cards will be fed through a scanning device and software will tell us how many of each meal is required. The system is regularly updated and tells us of any movements, receptions or discharges that affect food production and allocation.

This new kitchen has now been open for approximately 4 months. Is there anything you would have done differently had you been given the opportunity?

David Clough No, I have everything here that I need to do the job.

It’s not often you hear a caterer say that!

David I would like to thank you for taking time out to talk to the Review.