UK: Criminals to be fed vitamins to improve behaviour

[Guest guest]

Criminals to be fed vitamins to improve behaviour

Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent

Sunday November 28, 2004

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1361475,00.html

<http://www.observer.co.uk>

Criminals are to be given vitamin supplements in an unusual attempt to

reduce anti-social behaviour which will test the effect of diet on the

brain.

The move is controversial, with many in the prison service sceptical

that healthy food could make much difference to hardened criminals.

The proposals being drawn up within the Home Office reflect a growing

interest in the potential link between junk diets laced with additives

and disturbed or hyperactive behaviour. American research has shown a

link between poor diet and aggressive or impulsive tendencies, including

a recently published US study of young children from Mauritius which

found they were significantly less likely to grow up to have criminal

records if fed an enriched diet from a young age.

The Youth Justice Board is helping to organise the British trial, which

would involve young offenders who are serving community sentences, or

who have recently been released from jail, being given daily supplements

of fatty acids, trace minerals and vitamins to see if it reduces

anti-social behaviour.

'We have agreed to assist them by facilitating access to young people

where necessary,' said a spokesman. 'We are interested in seeing the

results of this.'

The project raises ethical questions. While only volunteers will take

part, if dramatic results from changing offenders' diets can be shown,

that will raise the question of whether prison diets should be altered

to 'dose' prison inmates into better behaviour.

Conversely, the approach is likely to be attacked by right-wing critics

as allowing offenders to escape responsibility for their own crimes by

blaming their diets.

However, a small previous study of teenagers in a young offenders'

institution carried out by the research charity Natural Justice, found

that boosting offenders' diets with supplements reduced disciplinary

incidents - such as attacks on fellow inmates and officers, or breaking

prison rules - by a third. While prison menus did offer healthy options,

the researchers realised that inmates avoided them in favour of a diet

of junk food that left them deprived of nutrients.

The charity wants to try to replicate the findings using a much larger

group of young offenders, and examine the effect on their reoffending

rates.

Bernard Gesch, chair of the charity, said: 'We are very pleased that

they are interested enough to look at this. The implications are fairly

massive: the government is forced to pump millions into anti-social

behaviour programmes, and surely given the scale of findings we

demonstrated [in the young offenders' institution] the dots aren't too

difficult to join up.'

Prisons Minister Goggins disclosed recently in a parliamentary

written answer to the senior Tory MP Alistair Burt that the Home Office

is considering research on offenders' diet.

The Prison Service is currently awaiting the results of a similar study

involving offenders in Holland.

Special reports

Prisons

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/Guardian/prisons/0,7368,464445,00.html>

Policing crime

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/Guardian/crime/0,2759,339240,00.html>

Full text

Inspector's report on Dartmoor prison (pdf)

<http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/02/01/dartmoor01.\

pdf>

Useful links

Home Office <http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/>

HM prison service <http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/>

ish prison service <http://www.sps.gov.uk/>

Prisons inspectorate <http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmipris/hmipris.htm>

League for Penal Reform <http://www.howardleague.org/>

Reform Remand campaign - Prison Reform Trust

<http://www.innocentuntilprovenguilty.com>

Inquest - campaign against deaths in custody <http://www.inquest.org.uk>

International Corrections and Prisons Association <http://www.icpa.ca/>

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