Prisoners May Or May Not Have Asked For Red Wine With Their Meals

A PR firm acting on behalf of an anonymous group of prisoners at Kvíabryggja prison is denying claims made by the Director of the Icelandic Prison Service, Páll Winkel, that certain prisoners have made requests for red wine with their meals, reports Vísir.

Kvíabryggja prison currently houses a number of bankers convicted in connection to Iceland’s economic meltdown in 2008.

“There have been requests from certain prisoners that there be red wine and other alcoholic beverages made available for special occasions,” Páll told Morgunblaðið in an interview published earlier this week. “Those requests were of course denied.”

But PR firm KOM, working on behalf of prisoners at Kvíabryggja – though KOM CEO Björgvin Guðmundsson would not specify which prisoners KOM worked for – insists no such request has been made.

Páll told Vísir that he had received a call from KOM CEO, Björgvin, and that it had surprised him that prisoners even retained the services of a PR firm to begin with.

“[Björgvin] told me that KOM was working for an anonymous group of prisoners that were sensitive to news coverage of this vein. I was not told who KOM was working for or what prisoners might be paying for their services. I was also told that the unnamed prisoners did not want to start a PR war, or an image war with the prison. But we don’t have a PR person on staff and public relations is still handled by the national prison service. All our resources and time are spent on enforcing sentences. So there is no one to start a PR war with.”