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Spending your summers in prison may not mean you miss out on the festive sizzle of sausages and bonding around a barbie.
Prison inmates are given barbecues up to three or four times a year to reward them for good behaviour, Public Prisons Service spokesman Bryan McMurray told the Corrections News magazine.
But he insisted that though steak had been served on occasion, it was not a regular fixture on the prison grill.
"The food cooked on prison barbecues would be more accurately described as a sausage sizzle," Mr McMurray said.
The food for the barbecues would either be brought by prisoners or the Prisoner Welfare Fund, or they would cook the standard food served at mealtimes.
"Barbecues also provide a more normalised environment for family days -- when a prisoner's family and whanau are invited inside the wire so a prisoner can maintain their links to the wider community," he said.
Prisoners involved in organising the events also received the opportunity to develop their social skills, and only those rated a low-security risk were allowed barbecues, he said.
- NZPA
