The other side of life behind bars

By Johnny Caldwell
BBC News

And would what newspaper would ma'am prefer in the morning?

It's a question you'd expect to hear at a top hotel but not, perhaps, at Belfast's Hydebank prison.

Three independent reports have been carried out into prisons

It is one of a number of recommendations contained in the annual independent reports into Northern Ireland's three prisons.

They also include the suggestion that while bread and water are now off the menu, the jail diet should be altered to take into account the growing number of inmates who are foreign nationals.

"Reading material, a radio and tobacco" should be made available to any prisoner in solitary confinement, according to Hydebank's report.

It also recommends the Prison Service should consider "subsidising prisoners' telephone calls to their families".

An enclosed visitors' walkway is suggested for Maghaberry

The prison shop features in the Magheraberry report with the recommendation that a facility be put in place to compensate for its closure during holidays.

Improvements aren't solely confined to prisoners.

An enclosed walkway is proposed for Magheraberry so that "visitors are not subjected to the elements at any stage of their visit".