North East jailbirds handed taxpayer-funded treats

Nov 1 2009 by Tom Mullen, Sunday Sun

JAILBIRDS at the North East's toughest prisons have been visited by sports stars as they're handed a host of perks behind bars.

Taxpayer-funded treats include visits from high-profile celebrities such as former Sunderland AFC manager Roy Keane and TV business mogul Duncan Bannatyne.

Keane and the team’s popular ex-skipper Kevin Ball visited Castington Young Offenders’ Institution as a treat for the juveniles’ football team.

Meanwhile, at HMP Durham, Dragons’ Den tycoon Duncan Bannatyne held a question and answer session with inmates studying his career as part of a business course.

Mr Bannatyne was then given a guided tour of the prison, which even hosted a poetry workshop with visiting poet David Croft.

Durham prison also hosted a bodybuilding show, with muscle man Ian Morgan, a World Federation Body Builder representative, brought in as a judge.

At Low Newton women’s prison, also in County Durham, convicts performed a version of the musical Moses, and enjoyed visits from dancers and musicians from the Hari Krishna Temple.

Jailbirds at Durham put on a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Special treats at HMP Acklington in Northumberland included a powerlifting weights display and a visit by blues guitarist Gus Eyre.

Durham’s high security Frankland Prison, which is home to Soham killer Ian Huntley, brought in a Spanish guitar trio called The Eduardo Nieble Experience as well as a troup of Christian powerlifters.

The Prison Service says the activities and visits are part of a programme of rehabilitation designed to protect the public from dangerous criminals.