Most popular items bought by inmates at HMP Magilligan over the last year revealed

The most popular items purchased by inmates from the tuck shop in a County Derry prison over the last year have been revealed due to new data.

Derry News acquired the data through a Freedom of Information request to the Northern Ireland Prison Service, which looks at the period from October 2023 until October 2024.

Inmates can purchase a number of different grocery items from the prison tuckshop as well.

as sundry items such as shower gel, deodorant, and other personal hygiene items.

The most popular item purchased by inmates across the 12 months was Canderel Sweetener sachets. 

In total, there were 118,048 sachets purchased across the year at the prison in Magilligan, with July 2024 being the most popular month in which the item was bought, with over 11,000 sachets obtained by inmates.

The next most popular item purchased by inmates across the year would be a perfect time to go with the Canderel Sweetener, as this item was a coffee cup sachet.

Inmates purchased 64,356 coffee cup sachets across the 12-month period at HMP Magilligan, with the most popular month to buy it being July 2024, the same as the Canderel Sweetener sachet.

The next most popular item purchased at the tuckshop was two items, but from the company, with 35,387 Vitazade’s being bought by inmates.

This fizzy drink comes in different flavours with 21,912 of the refreshment purchased being pineapple flavour while the other 13,475 being raspberry flavour.

Meanwhile, the next most popular item bought across the period was Lucozade original cans.

In total, there were 34,012 cans of this flavour bought at HMP Magilligan from the tuckshop, almost as many in total as the Vitazade flavours.

The fifth most popular item on the list were cigarette papers, with smoking being a popular habit of many within Ireland and the United Kingdom.

There were 26,422 of these items purchased by inmates across the 12 months, with the most in July 2024, being the month in which most were bought at the tuckshop, when 2,515 were obtained.

The last two items to round off the list are cans of coke and bananas being bought from the tuckshop in HMP Magilligan. 

There were 18,796 cans of coke bought across the 12 months, with October 2023 being the most popular month to buy this item; 2,288 were bought.

Meanwhile, there were 12,986 bananas purchased by inmates across the period from the data acquired; however, the figure for December 2023 was not provided, as it was not among the 10 most popular for that month. 

This also resulted in a complete amount of data for some other items, with Riverstone Ryo, sugar, Snicker’s bars, and Galaxy caramel chocolate bars also proving to be popular through the period.