The 25-year-old prisoner wanted to be allowed to make pastries at the Skänninge jail in eastern Sweden. However, warders feared that to do so might threaten order and security at the facility.
“We need to keep an eye on the yeast,” said prison chief Gert-Arne Sköld.
“If a prisoner, who might have problems with aggression, gets hold of the kind of alcohol that this would produce, it can have very strange effects. You could easily get problems with keeping order,” Sköld told local paper Östgöta Correspondenten.
The prisoner appealed the prison’s decision to the Swedish Administrative Court, but judges agreed that there was a risk that the yeast would be used for producing alcohol rather than baking.
“This is one of the best known phenomena in the prison service – a phenomenon we have had for many years. Long before drugs came into the picture, prisoners have tried to get their hands on intoxicating substances,” said Sköld.
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