Irish inmates take a break with Lyons Tea and Toffypops, tuck shop sales from the country’s 12 prisons reveal.
A new stock management and point-of-sale system was installed in every detention facility last year at a cost of €170,565.
It allows prisoners’ spending habits to be analysed for the first time.
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Data from the system shows inmates spend an average of €675,997 every month in prison tuck shops on products including soft drinks, chocolate, toiletries and even games consoles.
An average of €271,318 is spent on cigarettes and tobacco every month, accounting for more than 40% of sales.
Inmates also spend an average of €28,211 a month on vaping products. These were particularly popular in the Dochas Centre for female offenders, where one in every four euro was spent on e-cigarette kits and liquids. The country’s busiest tuck shop is in the Midlands Prison, where sales of €500,814 were recorded during a period of less than four months between the beginning of last August and November 25.
Sales reports show a preference for Lyons Tea over Barry’s, with inmates purchasing 245,281 bags of Dublin-based Lyons brand compared to 159,920 of Cork-based Barry’s.
The latter was more popular in Munster, however, outselling Lyons by almost three to one in Cork Prison and beating the rival brand by a comfortable margin in Limerick. Toffypops were the most popular biscuits, with 17,028 packs sold.
The Irish Prison Service has said profits are used to support inmates through the Prisoner Assist Programme Fund, hardship payments, and other services.
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