Mark Bennett the interim Director of HMP Peterborough is accused of failing to ensure that all inmates held at the prison are receiving the daily food allowance due to a combination of failures by poorly trained landing staff who are unable to control the distribution of food at mealtimes amid corrupt practices, poor food monitoring and basic food handling by inmates employed by the Director of the prison.
Financial Fraudster News investigations has spoken to several former inmates recently released from HMP Peterborough, one being Jason Peters [not his real name], who said “I have been in and out of HMP Peterborough a few times, and I have seen this prison go downhill, apart from the Induction Wing called W1, where you get your food entitlement on the majority of servings; but on the other wings, the food is either stolen, hidden (for personal consumption by those in control normally servery workers) and/or sold leaving many inmates like me not being given their allocated food entitlement, it is a shocking dereliction of duty by staff…the staff have lost it…especially at mealtimes, there is very little queuing or control, it’s a free for all; especially on wings like X2…the Director needs to get a grip…”
Financial Fraudster News investigations prison source, Corey Stewart [not his real name] who formerly served as a prison officer at HMP Peterborough stated, “I have worked in the prison system for many years, mainly in the public sector…I worked at HMP Peterborough and have witnessed operational issues, particularly surrounding the issue of distribution of food from the central kitchens to prisoners on the wings; who consistently fail to receive their full food entitlement due to poor oversight of prisoners who are charged to serve the food to fellow prisoners…food is a powder keg situation and senior management must ensure that with prisoners spending extended periods locked-up in cells food or lack of can create flash-points within the system…”
Sodexo Justice Services has managed/run HMP Peterborough, a category B local prison in Peterborough for many years.
Prison inspectors recently visited the prison and were extremely concerned about how the prison was run in the consequence of issues of men spending too long locked-up and poor support for new arrivals, not enough to do, and increased violence and drug use.
Newly arriving prisoners are locked-up for long periods with little to do and are told to wait for long periods to wait for their numbers added to their telephone accounts to make calls.
Another source of frustration for prisoners is the lack of communication about sentence progression; many did not know when they could expect to see their Offender Manager or start an Offending Behaviour Programme.
The complaint system under the Complaints Policy Framework which all prisons in England and Wales are bound by is simply not fit-for-purpose.
Since 2024 an extra 6,000 prisoners are living in shared cells due to the capacity crisis in jails according to figures obtained by Financial Fraudster News investigations.
Every prison has a fixed ‘operational capacity’, which is the maximum number of prisoners it is allowed to hold considering the layout of the building, facilities and staff numbers. Operational capacity can be increased by ‘doubling-up’ single cells.
Financial Fraudster News has asked Sodexo, the Ministry of Justice and HM Inspectorate of Prisons for their comment, to date all have declined to comment on this article.
