By Jan Murphy
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Just because an inmate is behind bars in Pennsylvania’s state prisons doesn’t mean they are denied their hot dog and hamburger on Labor Day, pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day, or turkey on Thanksgiving.
They still get food associated with holidays, along with grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, and macaroni and cheese like they most likely had before they become a resident of one of the state’s 26 prisons.
“We look at these people as this is their home now and we have to feed them like they would be at home,” said Marcia Noles, chief of the food services division for Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections. “It’s a taste of home.”
Even though some victims and others might begrudge giving inmates more than a bread and water diet, a lot of thought, attention and planning goes into feeding 51,000 inmates in Pennsylvania’s state prisons.
After all, corrections officials believe a good meal, or at least a fulfilling one, goes a long way to quelling inmate unrest over food issues and can avoid the lawsuits that other county and federal facilities in Pennsylvania have experienced.
Earlier this year, Lancaster County inmates shouted protests from behind prison walls about the living conditions inside that facility, including complaints about food. In 2013, Schuylkill County prison inmates filed a federal civil rights suit last year, claiming they weren’t being given enough food and inmates were losing weight. In 2011, hundreds of federal prisoners at a high-security federal prison northeast of Scranton became sick after eating salmonella-contaminated chicken, resulting in dozens of poisoning-related lawsuits.
So while the taste of food at state prisons might remind inmates of home, how it is prepared and how it is served is nothing like their mother’s kitchen.
What’s it like to eat in prison?
It takes about an hour and a half to serve all 2,300 male inmates at the State Correctional Institution-Coal Twp., a 22-year-old facility nestled between two tree-covered mountains in Northumberland County.
The prison’s food service manager John Snyder shared the mealtime procedure that is followed there during a recent visit to that prison, which is typical of the one followed at other state correctional facilities.
Inmates are fed three times a day in the three inmate dining halls that are separate from one where staff generally eat.
Breakfast begins at 6:30 a.m. Lunch at 11. Supper at 4:15 p.m. About 200 inmates at a time are sent into a utilitarian-looking dining hall devoid of everything but the dozens of tables with four attached seats.
This is done intentionally to avoid long lines and the tensions that can arise from having to wait for food, he said. The dining hall where inmates eat like the order in which housing units are sent down to meals varies “just to make sure no patterns are set,” Snyder said.
Upon entering the dining hall, an inmate’s ID card is scanned. It’s a way to identify who is eating and ensure an inmate doesn’t double back and try to grab a second meal, Snyder explained.
Inmates then proceed through the serving line, where inmate food service workers dish out the meal on to a tray under the watchful eye of a prison staffer.
Close attention is paid to making sure inmates with special dietary needs are fed the appropriate food and that every tray has the assigned quantity of food in the assigned spot to avoid any spats over that, he said. If an inmate prefers a meat alternative meal, he or she can have one. Once the inmate has his or her food and drink, a corrections officer leads them to a table to eat.
On most days, they are given about 20 minutes to finish their meal although Snyder said they get a little longer on holidays.
When done, inmates carry their tray to the tray drop-off area where it is inspected by a corrections officer who checks to be sure the tray, cup and reusable plastic utensils are all returned.
Then, they head back to their housing unit, leaving the inmate food service workers to clean up the dining hall, serving area and kitchen afterward.
The prisons’ food service operation follows the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ diabetic diet and offer about 2,500 calories a day over the three meals. The menu runs through a four-week cycle and is changed every six months.
At every meal, a vegetarian-style entrée is offered such as tofu cacciatore, soy barbecue, veggie burgers. The alternative protein menu options that are offered contributed to the department winning recognition by Vegetable Times Magazine in 2008 and being named one of PETA’s Most Vegetarian-Friendly State Prison Systems in 2007.
In addition, food service managers at Pennsylvania’s state prisons take great care to accommodate special meal requests due to religious observances. But if a special food is requested on a religious holiday, Snyder said inmates in that religious community pay for it.
Along with keeping an eye out for food product shortages, Noles said she and the prison’s food service managers focus on ensuring a day’s meals are nutritionally balanced, are the best quality that corrections’ budgets can buy, and keep inmates in healthy condition.
Despite all that, prison food tends to get a bad rap thanks to misperceptions created by television shows and movies that portray it as of poor quality and used as punishment, Snyder said.
“A lot of people from the vendors on down think it’s prison food, what does it matter,” he said. “So if I’m a produce vendor and have a new skid of potatoes and an old skid, I’ll send the old skid to corrections because it’s jail.
“The reality is we’re all very cognizant that this is our own money, taxpayers’ money being spent on it,” he said. “We take pride in the quality we are putting out. I think that is not portrayed when you see prisons on TV.”
In addition to what is served at the dining hall, inmates also have the option of buying food items from the commissary - ramen noodles is a consistent top seller - or family on the outside can send them a SecurePak, a department-approved care package.
Who’s in the kitchen
How food is prepared in the state prisons is not like home in a lot of ways.
Probably not too many people keep their knives behind lock and key or require helpers to walk through metal detectors before leaving.
But that is typical in prison kitchens, which are a seven-day-a-week, 16- to 24-hour- a day operation run by employees who have inmates working alongside them.
About 8,000 inmates work in food service across all the state prisons, said corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton.
They work four to seven hour shifts and are paid between 19 and 42 cents an hour. Some earn 51 cents an hour if they completed the corrections department’s Culinary Academy, where food safety and related instruction are taught.
Working in a prison’s food service operation is popular with inmates. In fact, there’s often a waiting list of inmates wanting one of those jobs. A reason it’s so popular, Snyder said, is because it gives inmates access to a little more food than they would receive on the serving line.
But not just anyone is hired to work there. Health concerns and behavior issues can make some inmates unsuitable to work around food, corrections officials said. Those who are hired are inspected for cleanliness and health at the start of every shift and go through a metal detector at the end of it.
Cameras throughout the kitchen area allow staff to monitor inmates’ movements from an office area behind darkened glass.
Places to hide items are kept to a minimum. A computer program identifies where the inmate workers should be every 15 minutes.
Food service utensils are stored in a locked cabinet over a “shadow board” that displays silhouettes of each utensil, making it easy for staff to see if anything goes missing. Sharp knives also are kept under lock and key in a locked food preparation room.
When they are needed, staff removes the tethered knives from a locked cabinet and padlock each one to the stainless steel counter in the food prep area before inmates are allowed to enter.
Ingredients used in recipes also can present safety risks. Noles said that is why spices are kept to a minimum and hot sauce is not permitted in foods. Same goes with pickles, which believe it or not, prison officials have learned also can pose security concerns.
“You really have to think outside the box because these guys have nothing but time on their hands so anything simple that you wouldn’t think twice about, they notice,” Snyder said.
Food that is fed to inmates is also served to prison staff, who have a separate dining area from inmates although at times, Mooney, the superintendent at SCI-Coal Twp., said he makes a point of eating in the inmate dining area to demonstrate that fact.
Complaints and costs
Just like at home, not every meal draws rave reviews.
“We always get suggestions,” Mooney said. “They always want things that are way beyond what we’re able to do. They want certain things that are just not feasible.”
Snyder recalled receiving a complaint recently from an inmate who claimed, “You are denying me my chocolate milk every day, which state law guarantees me. “
Another complained about being served yellow bananas. The inmate told him. “I know this is dangerous for you and this practice must stop immediately.” Another asked, “why can’t we have sugared cereal?”
Sometimes, inmates’ dislike of a certain food doesn’t need to rise to the level of a complaint. If a particular food item is frequently seen left untouched on trays, it gets taken off the menu.
That’s what happened to the beet and onion salads and some casserole dishes, which were replaced with some other foods that have the same nutritional value.
“We are constantly reviewing what’s on the menu,” Noles said.
An official from the Pennsylvania Prison Society, an inmate advocacy group, says most of the complaints they hear from inmates not in solitary confinement are about the food quality and quantity they get in the prison dining halls.
“They say there’s only so much Jell-O you can eat,” said John Hargreaves, the prison society’s director of volunteers.
Some victims wouldn’t care if that is the only food their offender got to eat, but not all of them.
“You have a very diverse opinion among victims,” said Pennsylvania’s Victims Advocate Jennifer Storm. “Some victims want to see their offender suffer and see them receive the worst treatment possible. Then you are going to have victims who hope their offender is going to come into the institution to get well and come out a better person.”
Outside of the state, Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections food service operation is regarded as a leader.
In fact, the official in charge of the food service division for Florida’s Department of Corrections modeled his state prison’s religious dietary program after the one Pennsylvania has developed. Shane Phillips, assistant bureau chief for the department’s Bureau of Management and Monitoring, where the food service operation is housed, also likes the way the Pennsylvania’s food service division is partnered with health care services in the same bureau to ensure each inmates’ dietary needs are met.
More generally, he is impressed with the food options Pennsylvania provides inmates and the funding level at which the state funds the prisons’ food service division.
The grocery bill for Pennsylvania’s prisons added up to $61.8 million to feed the 51,000 inmates and staff last year. Florida’s prisons had a food budget of $62 million to feed 90,000 inmates.
“I don’t know if you ever heard the saying ‘a happy inmate is a well-fed inmate.’ I think allowing inmates to have more say so in what they are eating and the more funding put into food service, it makes the inmates happier,” Phillips said.
“It leads to less instances of violence and disruption and things of that nature and improves the overall health of the inmate. If they are eating a good quality meal that leads to a reduction in health costs overall. “
Noles emphasized that the prisons are not serving steak and rarely serve whole-muscle meats. She said they keep a close eye on costs to be sure they are staying within a food budget. “If there is a scenario where the price of something rises out of sight, it comes off the menu because we have to keep our budget at a certain rate for the amount of money we pay for meals,” she said.
Based on the nearly 58.7 million meals served to inmates and staff in 2013-14, the cost averaged out to $1.12 per meal.
“We don’t turkey our inmates to death yet we don’t want to give them something that you as a taxpayer couldn’t afford at your house either,” she said. “So we look for a happy medium.”