Porridge

"Corrections Minister Judith Collins has a message for the long-term prisoner who is demanding healthier menus: "stay out of jail if you don't like the food".

Dean Wickliffe, one of New Zealand's longest-serving inmates, wrote to Corrections boss Ray Smith asking for greater variety of more affordable and healthy food for purchase in prisons.

But Collins said: ''If he was so worried about the food in prison, he had choices in his life.

''One of them was to not commit crime to end up in prison for long stretches. Hopefully before committing any other crimes, he would like to remember the food he found so boring and tasteless.''

Collins said Corrections made no money from selling ''treats".

She said a smoking ban, in force from July, would mean prisoners would have more cash to spend on goodies.

Prisoners can spend up to $70 a week on food and toiletry items from a nationally-managed list which includes 13 items of confectionary but only three items of fruit..."

As we used to say to all bitching about prison 'Stay out of jail'

My understanding was that the canteen list was based on popular demand.

'Healthy Food' was not exactly a popular choice. Peanut slabs, instant noodles and coffee were the big choices- behind fags and tobacco. Bugger all brought the fruit- but then they got a piece of fresh-ish fruit every day. When apples where on the menu- often as second-grade apples were the cheapest option- the box was left out- although they were not allowed to store them in their cells, for the obvious reason.

Let's not forget that the food is not at all flash, but is nutritiously complete and adequate for a sedentary lifestyle. It's more than a lot of pensioners get...