FOOTBALL FANS in Perth Prison have been receiving training from two of Tayside’s top football clubs.
Community coaches from St Johnstone FC and Dundee United FC have been working with officers at the prison to deliver the award-winning Football Fans in Training programme to inmates.
The project is geared towards promoting a more active lifestyle and encourages prisoners to eat more healthily and manage their weight while in jail.
This has led to the prisoners using pedometers to monitor their daily exercise levels and they have been replacing unhealthy snacks with fruit. Many have reported feeling better about themselves and sleeping better as a result of being on the programme.
Perth Prison physical education instructor Craig Mailer yesterday said: “Some of our staff members had achieved great results on Football Fans in Training courses at Dundee United and St Johnstone.
“We wanted to give the prisoners here the same opportunity. They have really taken the key healthy living messages on board.
“They are walking more, attending extra sessions at the gym and many have been passing what they have learned on to other inmates and to their wives, partners and children.”
Researchers from the Medical Research Council and Glasgow University are working with the prison to identify ways in which inmates can make changes to their exercise and diets, both while in jail and once they are released.
Professor Kate Hunt, from the Medical Research Council, said the men who have taken part in the programme “have done really well”.
“Poor diet, inadequate physical activity, obesity and poor mental health are real problems within the Prison Service, as they are in the wider community,” she said.
“The benefit of being more active, eating a healthier diet and good weight management to mental health, as well as physical health, cannot be overestimated.”
The Football Fans in Training research project at Perth Prison is funded by the Chief Scientist Office, which is part of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.
preoch@thecourier.co.uk