Fifteen high-risk prisoners at the New Horizon Remand Centre in Kingston, unhappy with the quality of the food served there, have been on a hunger strike since Wednesday and are demanding that they be allowed gourmet fare as part of their daily dining requirement.

According to Commissioner of Corrections Major Richard Reese, the prisoners, supported by their lawyers, have been agitating for meals to be brought into the remand centre.

“They said they needed proper food and we allowed their doctor to examine and state their special needs,” Reese told the Observer yesterday.

“The doctor sent a letter indicating that they needed black forest cake, ackee and saltfish, KFC, oxtail, the sodium-filled cup noodles and cranberry juice. This, for people who are diabetic.”

Among the inmates said to be on hunger strike are Jamaicans:

. Leebert Ramcharan;

. Donovan Williams;

. Norris ‘Dedo’ Nembhard;

. Robroy ‘Spy’ Williams;

. Herbert ‘Scarry’ Henry;

. Glenford Williams;

. Vivian Dalley; and

. Colombian Louis Miguel Arias.

They are all awaiting the outcome of extradition hearings, having been arrested by local police last year at the request of foreign governments.

Lawyers representing some of the remandees have repeatedly asked judges to speak to the correctional authorities about the quality of meals served at the remand centre.

Yesterday, during the extradition hearings of ex-policeman Carlton Dunkley, who is wanted by United States authorities to answer to drug trafficking charges, and Montego Bay-based cambio dealer Adrian Armstrong, who is wanted on money laundering and conspiracy charges, their attorneys, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown and Jade Hollis, asked that the corrections department allow their clients to receive meals brought to them by their families.

When both accused men were being led away yesterday, one of them was overheard complaining to a policeman that they were being served rotten cabbage and spoilt chicken back.

But according to Major Reese, the policy at the remand centre is that no food from the outside is allowed inside the facility, due to security concerns.

Inmates at the New Horizon Remand Centre are provided with three meals a day. The food is prepared by Industrial Catering Services, a company which provides food for some airlines.

Major Reese also denied a claim that the prisoners were being denied their daily one-hour recreation – the time they use to walk around the yard of the remand centre and exercise.

The hunger strike is also centred around the prison authorities’ refusal to allow inmates to stock up on snacks from a tuck shop at the remand centre. The tuck shop, according to Reese, was set up after the inmates complained to him that the time between supper and breakfast was too long and that they were hungry throughout the night.

Inmates’ relatives can purchase tickets which the inmates use to buy biscuits and other snacks. Each inmate has a limit on how many snacks can be bought in a week.

“What they were doing was to stock up on snacks from the tuck shop to prove their point that they didn’t want the prison food,” Reese said. “The supervisor stopped them from stocking up. We have almost 700 people. If we give one special privileges, we have to give all. It is one order for everybody.”

Reese defended the quality of the food at the remand centre, and said that Public Defender Howard Hamilton, representatives from lobby group Jamaicans For Justice and the Bar Association of Jamaica had recently been given a tour of the facility and gave their approval.