Soaring prices have led some to trim portions, but not Franklin County
By Elizabeth Gibson
The Columbus Dispatch
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ohio — Costs are climbing at the only two dining establishments in town where the dress code requires khaki or neon orange jumpsuits.
Shoppers are trimming grocery lists as food costs rise, but Franklin County is simply eating the growing expenses for feeding its jail inmates.
Other jails are experimenting with cutting portions and fresh food, but county officials and inmates’ families say messing with the menu would be inhumane.
“We’ll cover appropriations as needed. Unless it gets astronomical, it shouldn’t change,” sheriff’s office Finance Director David Masterson said.
Masterson estimates that provisions for inmates will go about $100,000 over budget this year. He expects food costs to jump 14 percent to $3.1 million for 2008 compared with relatively constant expenses, and number of people fed, over the past five years.
Some authorities are rearranging dishes in search of savings. In Polk County, Fla., crackers replaced cornbread and chocolate milk gave way to water as the county tries to save $200,000. The sheriff even cut peanut butter from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“I think the peanut butter was missed the most,” said Carrie Rodgers, a spokeswoman for the sheriff. “Obviously, they’re not happy with any of the changes.”
Clarks County, Wash., went the opposite direction with PB&J, nixing the jelly. The county has shrunk portion sizes, and prisoners get meat substitutes such as beans, noodles and cornmeal.
“There’s been a bigger focus on legumes,” said Clark Campbell, food services manager for Clarks County. “But, of course, you can only go so far. These are sons and daughters of county residents.”
Still, other jails have gone further, cutting down to two meals a day -- both cold sack lunches.
“I don’t see that ever happening” here, said Hal Rhoads, food-services manager for the Franklin County jail on Jackson Pike.
Any change to the diets of local inmates requires approval from a nutritionist.
The menu isn’t fine dining. One serving of food costs about $1.04.
Former inmates said the portions already are too small and unappetizing.
“After I tried it, I couldn’t eat it again,” said Robert Anderson, 19, of Columbus. “It didn’t really have a taste to it.”
Anderson said he subsisted mostly on juice and snacks that he bought at the jail commissary while held in December on charges of carrying a concealed weapon.
The kitchens accept the lowest-price supplies without regard for brand names. The Jackson Pike and Downtown jails serve about 7,900 meals a day.
Most of the food is canned and dried goods bought through contracts of six months to a year to protect against future price spikes. However, produce and meat companies will commit to prices only a few weeks ahead because their costs are volatile.
The charge for staples such as potatoes and bananas more than doubled from July last year to July this year.
Food bought under longer-term contracts has seen smaller increases. The price for a case of 96 personal pizzas has risen 12 percent to $35.80 over the past six months.
Much of the food that people in jail eat is prepared from scratch with the help of a few inmates assigned to kitchen duty.
On a recent Thursday night at the Downtown jail, inmates dined on oranges, spinach and freshly made spiced potatoes, cornbread and pinto beans with turkey bits -- although the jail called them pork bits. For breakfast the next day, they had Aunt Jemima French toast.
The Downtown jail’s food-services manager, Karen Raymond, said comfort food is popular. Coney dogs and fries or burritos are favorites, she said.
Copyright 2008 The Columbus Dispatch