THE Department of Correctional Services (DCS) says the recent decision to ban several food items from the list visitors are allowed to take in serves to “strengthen efforts to prevent the trafficking of prohibited articles, including marijuana” into the island’s prisons.

The list of banned staples — which, according to Jamaica Observer sources, are items of food widely enjoyed by inmates who refuse to eat the meals prepared by prison cooks — was posted on Tuesday.

The department said cup soups, oats, tinned potato chips or similar packaged snacks, and boxed cereals…are no longer accepted during visits to correctional facilities.

“We encourage all visitors to review and comply with these guidelines to avoid inconvenience or delays. Your cooperation supports the safety, security and smooth operation of our facilities,” said a brief note below the post.

The DCS’s communications unit, in a written response to Observer queries, said Wednesday that, “the enhanced measures form part of the department’s ongoing strategy to preserve the safety, discipline, and good order of our facilities”.

Furthermore, it said, “as part of the strengthened controls, the department has introduced stricter gate entry procedures and restrictions on certain visitor items that may be used to conceal prohibited articles”.

“The DCS wishes to emphasise that these actions are preventative in nature and reflect our zero-tolerance approach to contraband smuggling and any activity that undermines institutional security. We remain committed to balancing security with professionalism, fairness, and humane treatment, while continuing our rehabilitation and reintegration mandate…,” the statement said further.

In the meantime, information relayed to the Observer from an ex-inmate indicates that prison administrators have outlawed cereals such as oats as it was believed that visitors have been crushing MDMA/ecstasy pills known as Molly into the product.

According to the former inmate, however, the correctional services would be better-minded to look within to find the true culprits.

A well-placed source who interacts with the prisons on a frequent basis, in being sceptical about the changes, noted that products such as oats are required to be poured out into transparent plastic bags and are searched before being allowed in.

“Apart from perhaps the cup soup that has to be sealed, the oats, the chips and so on, those things can go into a clear plastic bag and they would search them just like any other item. In fact, if you even take toothpaste you have to squeeze it into a plastic bag,” the source pointed out.

“Even if they prevent visitors from bringing these items into the prisons, it is widely known that most contraband that finds its way into the prison is from the correctional officers themselves and the warders. Everything is in prison except your freedom. If you want a phone you can get it in prison… they use these items to trade for various things…simple commodities like a tissue is used to trade for drugs.”

Speaking further to the list of now-banned items, he said, “I can’t say for certain that it is by the use of these items — say, for example, putting marijuana in a [chips tin] — but there are means and ways in which persons can do so, and they may very well have been, and that may be one reason why they are banning those items.

“They are very creative in terms of how they get these things inside so maybe that would be the most logical reason for banning these items,” the individual pointed out.

In confirming that food items such as oats were a staple for inmates who refuse to eat the meals provided by the prisons, the individual said, “sometimes they want something hot, and some of them in the single cells have their own kettles and they want something instant and so on”.

“The reality is that the food that the prisons provide is almost unfit for human consumption. It’s not good, and they [prisoners] will tell you that. For breakfast they might get hard bread, for lunch a little rice with some chicken back and so on — and you can imagine that the food is cooked in bulk so it’s not necessarily the most delicious meals that they are getting — so I am sure this will cause some uprising to know that they have banned something as simple as cup soup,” he noted further.

The Observer was told that inmates, to avoid eating the food served behind bars, have gone as far as to remove parts of their shoes which are then lit and held in proximity to containers with water in order to heat the substance which is then used to make tea or some other warm meal.

“That’s true. They are very creative,” the source said.