Canada's prison service is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on everything from dentures to prosthetic limbs.

Documents obtained through Access to Information reveal how Corrections Service Canada manages its annual budget of $2.2 billion to care for its 14,500 inmates.

In the 2007-08 financial year, the department spent more than $322,000 on dentures, $162,000 on prosthetic limbs, $256,000 on eyeglasses and almost $82,000 on hearing aids. The numbers do not include Atlantic Canada.

A partial picture of the cost of prison dentistry reveals that, excluding B.C. and Atlantic Canada, taxpayers spend $2.2 million just filling cavities and cleaning prisoner's teeth.

But these numbers pale in comparison to the cost of food for Canada's inmates, which is just over $25 million a year across all provinces. The cost of household and sanitary supplies is more than $8 million a year nationally.

In a report on Thursday, Auditor General Sheila Fraser said Canada's prison service is failing to get value for taxpayers' money.

"Correctional Service Canada does not manage its purchasing of food, clothing and cleaning products in a way to obtain best value at the lowest available cost," the report reads.

Fraser said money could be saved if prisons bought in bulk more often, instead of leaving purchasing up to individual facilities -- 58 federal institutions and 16 community correctional centres across the country.

The documents, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under Access to Information, reveal seemingly high costs for everything from furniture to toiletries and even kitchen supplies.

In a given year, prisoners in Quebec go through more than $133,000 in toiletries, but that is less than the $150,000 in Ontario or the $294,000 spent in the Prairie region -- Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

A surprising cost is perhaps how much the prison service spends on kitchen utensils each year. It costs $519,000 to outfit the Prairies, compared to $501,000 in Ontario and $373,000 in Quebec.

Christa McGregor, spokeswoman for Correctional Service Canada, explained the figure might seem high because it includes the cost of appliances under $10,000.

The price tag to make sure every cell has linen and functional furniture is almost $1.7 million nationally. In Ontario the cost is $534,000, compared to $412,000 in Quebec and almost $530,000 in the Prairies.

"There is nothing too significant about these costs," McGregor said. "Costs for cell furnishings are impacted by the populations in the institutions."