By Jeff Bahr
American News
ABERDEEN, S.D. — At the Brown County Jail, the inmates got their Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday. That meal looked a lot like what you might be sitting down to today.
At 5 p.m., the inmates were served turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, creamed corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner roll and pumpkin pie with whipped topping.
One of the inmates, William Truax, gave thanks for the meal. He’s been in the Brown County jail for two months, and the Thanksgiving dinner was the best meal he’s had during that time. Truax, 38, said it’s hard to be in jail on Thanksgiving. His family is back in Arkansas. But, he said, “We go with it. That’s all we can do.”
Another inmate, Dylan Hoerner, said the food at the jail is generally good. But the Thanksgiving meal stood out. “It’s amazing,” Hoerner said.
Erik Marko said he’s also been at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls, but the food at the Brown County Jail is better. “We get more calories here and it’s better food too,” Marko said.
A little more than 30 people were in the jail Wednesday. That number is a little low, said head cook Diane Mielke. Many people wait until after the holidays to serve their sentence.
The three daily meals are served in the sections in which the inmates are housed. Truax, Hoerner and Marko were among six men eating at tables not far from their cells. The tables are behind bars.
The inmates get a special meal twice a year — on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Mielke has been the jail’s head cook for 18 years. The county also employs a part-time cook. Trusties also help with the meals. Normally, for every hour a trusty works, three hours is reduced from his sentence.
Of the items served Wednesday, Mielke bought the cranberries, the pie, the dinner rolls and stuffing herself.
In many ways, Mielke is just like the main cook you’d find in many households.
For instance, she keeps her eye out for sales. She’s happy, for instance, to find chocolate chips priced at 99 cents.
The jail also tries to keep the inmates’ stomachs full. “Mark wants to give them good-sized meals because the happier they are the less problems they cause,” Mielke said, referring to Sheriff Mark Milbrandt.
To fill up the inmates, the cooks serve a lot of mashed potatoes. In addition, most meals come with two pieces of bread.
The bigger items Mielke serves inmates come from a local food wholesaler. But she buys many of the smaller items at Wal-Mart, Ken’s or Kessler’s.
She goes shopping for the inmates three times a week, before she goes to work.
The dinner rolls she served Wednesday night were purchased Wednesday morning.
Mielke was happy that an Aberdeen grocery store gave her a good deal on 16 pumpkin pies she bought recently. Eight of those pies were for Wednesday, the other eight for Christmas.
The inmates like a number of the items Mielke makes from scratch, including tri-tater hot dish, goulash, meatballs, chili and nachos.
But they also like some of the foods the cooks simply warm up, such as breaded chicken patties, breaded beef patties and tater tots. The inmates also like cheeseburgers, even though they’re frozen, Mielke said.
The trusties serve breakfast each day at 5 a.m. Other than toast, that meal is cold. It includes cereal and orange juice. One day a week, the inmates get Pop-Tarts.
Today, breakfast will include mini-doughnuts. Mielke tries to add a little treat on holidays. “Because it’s depressing to be here on a holiday,” she said.
Even though the cooks will be gone today, the inmates will be fed two items they like — chicken nuggets for lunch and corn dogs for supper. Even the employees like the corn dogs, Mielke said. The jailers are allowed to eat because they don’t get a lunch hour.
Lunch will also include a baked potato, vegetable, two breads and pudding. In addition to corn dogs, dinner will consist of baked beans, chips, a fruit, Kool-Aid and a Little Debbie cake.
Milbrandt takes pride in keeping the cost per meal low, he said. In many counties, the inmates are not fed by county employees, but by a separate business, Milbrandt said.
Mielke occasionally hears compliments from inmates as they walk past the kitchen door.
One current inmate, who is very nice, “said that he really appreciates my food,” Mielke said.
Another inmate told her Wednesday that he likes her spaghetti, lasagna hot dish and tater tot hot dish.
Mielke complies with inmates who have health concerns or preferences. A couple of them didn’t want pork for religious reasons. Some might not want fish or tomato. She has fed vegetarians, but it’s more common to find inmates who have diabetes.
The cooks make cookies from scratch quite often. They use cake mix to make cakes. Mielke has made stuffing from scratch, but Wednesday’s offering was from Stove Top.
On Christmas, the inmates will have chicken cordon bleu or chicken Kiev. Those meals are store-bought, rather than made from scratch.
Even inmates who leave for part of the day are fed by the jail. When people go out on work release, Mielke gives them a sack lunch.