The VPSG provides help, support, and information for vegans detained either in police custody or within the prison system. VPSG also try to ensure that the prison vegan diets are nutritionally sound and that vegan clothing, hygiene and bodycare products are made available or can be ordered or sent in to vegan prisoners.
Note: As of April 2009, the VPSG are no longer maintaining a list of prisoners' names and addresses. If you have linked to our prisoner list from your website, please amend your links. For other websites that provide this information, try a Google search.
Latest News
October 2009
VPSG at the London Vegan Festival and update on what has been going on at the VPSG. Click on the image to download the newsletter in PDF format.
September 2009
The September 2009 VPSG newsletter is now out, with a look back at 15 years of campaigning for equal opportunities for vegan prisoners. Click on the image to download the newsletter in PDF format.
August 2009
After negotiations with HM Prison Service, from the 1st August two mail order companies providing vegan toiletries and health supplements were added to the full canteen listing. We feel that the addition of these two companies should ensure vegan prisoners should shortly be able to order healthy food choices like nuts, seeds, dried fruit and an iodine supplement [required for the proper functioning of the thyroid gland] and their bodycare/hygiene requirements if not included on their local canteen listing.
We are compiling information received from vegans at various prisons which will be used as part of our ongoing research on this and other minority group issues.
We feel this is a positive approach by the Prison Service to ensure equal opportunities for the minority group we represent.
31 Mar 2009
It's now been 15 years this April since VPSG was first established - our aims were and still are to highlight concerns and make recommendations to try to ensure equal opportunities for strict ethical vegans detained within prison or in a police cell.
Below are some of the achievements we have made since we were established in 1994:
- Our Guidelines on the Care of Vegans were installed in every prison in 1996
- Vegan prison issue toiletries now available in all prisons
- Catering Information Pack first installed in all prisons in 2004 and updated and re-issued jointly with The Vegan Society in 2007
- Prison News Sheets are now produced twice a year to all Catering Managers now jointly with The Vegan Society
- Caseworkers allocated to each strict ethical vegan prisoner to assist them during their sentence
- Helpline available to prisoners 7 days a week
- Emergency Arrest Line available 7 days a week
However, due to the increase in the growing number of prisoners and our continuing work for equal opportunities we needed to decide how the VPSG team were going to cope with the additional volume of work. Our ultimate goal is to ensure whichever prison a strict ethical vegan prisoner arrives at they will have facilities in place for the prison to be able to properly provide for them.
Outstanding Concern - Prison Shops
We continue to highlight our concerns on equal opportunities for vegans in Prison Shops, first brought to the attention of the Prison Service in early 1996, as we feel that vegans are still not adequately catered for in all Prison Shops. The reason being only a selection of items can be chosen from the full listing and the choice is up to each individual prison. In reality this means if there were only two vegans at a particular prison they could decide not to list any vegan items whatsoever - therefore we need to increase our efforts to ensure that vegan prisoners are able to obtain their requirements through specialist mail order companies.
Many supporters will remember we sought their help to try to resolve this issue some years ago by writing to their MPs. However, although after many meetings and much correspondence some of our recommendations have recently been accepted, our efforts to resolve this issue overall to ensure 'like for like' often takes a back seat while we are kept busy with other work that comes into the VPSG office.
For supporters less familiar with what function the Prison Shop plays in prisoners' lives, it is where prisoners can purchase their weekly goods - if there are any vegan products to buy that is. Although on a positive note some of our recommendations have recently been installed under the DHL/Booker contract recently lost by Aramark.
Changes to our website www.vpsg.org
In order to create this much needed time to assist prisoners more speedily with any problems they may encounter and to concentrate on providing up to date information on the care of vegans as from the 1st April we will no longer be listing prisoners on our website as it duplicates information already available on other websites.
NEW
Guide for Vegan Prisoners is now also available for downloading on this website for anyone facing prison (pdf document).
VPSG - Cooking Behind Bars
This is a cookbook compiled with economical recipes for the prison cook the majority which were provided by different prison kitchens which are not only tasty but nutritional.