The Forward reported yesterday that in Scotland, the Inspectorate of Prisons has begun an investigation into why there has been a huge upsurge in inmates requesting kosher meals. The increase has added $313,000 per year to the cost of operating Scottish prisons. According to the news report:
Inmates are believed to have started asking for kosher food after watching “Orange is the New Black,” the American television show in which a character named Cindy Hayes, played by Adrienne Moore, converts to Judaism to get “better quality food,” as she explains it in the series.
At one Edinburgh prison, 111 prisoners are being served kosher meals, and it is thought that hundreds of prisoners across the United Kingdom have applied to change their religion to Judaism since the episode aired in 2015.
