More help for Jersey prisoners celebrating Eid

Staff at Jersey’s only prison have found new ways to help inmates celebrate Eid.

HMP La Moye worked with a Muslim chaplain in the UK to provide more support to inmates.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, a holy month where Muslims refuse food and drink between dawn and sunset.

Staff also took advice from inmates about what foods they wanted to break their fast with and they worked with Jersey’s Islamic Centre to make sure the island’s Muslim community was involved too.

States of Jersey Prison Service (SoJPS) chaplain David Cahill said the UK support meant they could hold “regular online meetings with Muslim prisoners to support them better for their observance of this holy month”.

He said: “If we can make those links with the wider community, it means prisoners are able to fit back into community and we’re able to release better neighbours.”

HMP La Moye has worked with the Jersey Islamic Centre for more than 20 years to provide support for Muslim inmates.

The centre’s caretaker – Aslam Shareef - said the partnership was "important for us as part of our kind of outreach to the community".

He added: "If we cannot show mercy to each other, then how will God show mercy to us."

Mr Shareef said he hoped other faith groups in Jersey would work with the prison because "people end up in that situation for whatever reason".

"It should not be the end of the road for them so they should always be a road to come back home," he said.

Governor for the SoJPS Susie Richardson said this year’s celebrations were not “led by us as an institution, it has been led by the Muslim prisoners”.

“They gave new recipes to our chefs and they've been able to invite a friend along to share their faith and why it's important to them," she said.

Mrs Richardson said she wanted this to be “part of wider work in the prison about celebrating difference and everybody having their own identity”.

The prison said it hoped to do more work with other communities to celebrate more events through the year.

Follow BBC Jersey on X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook. Send your story ideas to [email protected].