KEEPING Ireland's criminals fit and healthy behind bars has cost more than €193,000 during the past year, according to figures from the Irish Prison Service.

The money was paid out across all the jails in Ireland buying gym equipment such as weights, treadmills, static bikes and rowing machines.

The Irish Prison Service said it was money well spent and helped to keep prisoners occupied and healthy while they serve their sentences.

"In the prison setting, physical education affords prisoners the opportunity to take control of one aspect of their daily life – their physical well-being – with the potential effect of increasing their motivation and confidence to tackle other identified issues such as substance abuse, taking up educational or workshop opportunities," said a statement. "It is also recognised that physical education, sport and recreation also play a significant role in the management of prison life by providing positive outlets for energy."

Prison officers said there was a downside to the culture of weightlifting and body-building: it has created a thriving black market for steroids, which are still frequently seized in searches of jail cells and other areas.

Two years ago, more than 30 inmates went on hunger strike at Cloverhill Prison in protest at conditions. They were particularly angry that liquid steroids, which had been smuggled into the prison, had been confiscated.

Last week, a prison officer from Limerick Prison was detained on suspicion of supplying mobile phones and drugs to inmates, while in March 2007, three officers were arrested on suspicion of selling phones, alcohol, steroids and other drugs.

"The market for steroids in jail is huge because a lot of prisoners wouldn't touch heroin and their addiction becomes exercise. They have little or nothing else to do," one officer said. "It is a very macho culture at the best of times and a lot of prisoners will do anything to bulk up."

Notorious gangland criminal John Gilligan is known to be a bodybuilder.