It’s lunchtime at the Livonia police lockup. Officer Dan Tar slips a warm, cellophane-wrapped cheeseburger and a small plastic container of lemonade through a shoebox-size slot in the bars of a cell holding a Farmington Hills woman accused of driving on a suspended license. No condiments. No straw. Story from the Detroit Free Press.

“It’s edible,” the 30-year-old, who identified herself only as Taira, said. “I expected bologna and hard bread.”

If she had been arrested elsewhere in metro Detroit, her fare would have varied from a heated frozen meal in Troy to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in Detroit.

Like Livonia’s lockup, jails around Michigan are trying to save money on the cost of prisoner food, with many replacing restaurant fare with simpler meals to save money and manpower. In May, Wayne County privatized its jail food program in an effort to save $2.5 million a year. The Michigan Department of Corrections is conducting pilot programs in some prisons to cut costs, with some sites showing 30% savings. The programs may go statewide Oct. 1.

“These are people we have locked up,” Harper Woods Police Chief Randolph Skotarczyk said. “It can’t be bread and water.”

Prisoner food is hard to trim out of city, county and state budgets, but governments are trying to save. In a Michigan Department of Corrections cost-saving plan that could go statewide this fall, steps include standardizing menus and ordering food in bulk, spokesman John Cordell said.

The programs, in part, stem from the Michigan auditor general’s 2008 audit of prisoner food services that states the corrections department should consider additional ways to reduce the costs of providing prisoner meals.

Detroit faces cost cutting for jail food, too. Detroit Police Department spokesman John Roach said the 2010-11 budget has $170,000 for meals — $180,000 less than this year. He said the mayor’s office is working to address the matter.

He also said Detroit is trying to enter into an agreement with Wayne County to house detainees — a move that would be better for detainees and for police, which could return cops to the street and “satisfy a very big portion of our (federal) consent decree.”

Macomb County will spend before it saves. On Thursday, county commissioners may approve a nearly $1.5-million contract to renovate the county jail’s aged kitchen, which closed in the fall because of mold in freezers. The work could be done by Nov. 1, allowing inmates to return to eating regular hot meals instead of brown-bag ones.

“When citizens take on the responsibility of incarcerating people for criminal behavior, they also take on the responsibility of caring for them,” Cordell said.

What inmates are eating
Many metro area law-enforcement agencies have stopped using restaurants for detainee food, with Ferndale switching to a vendor that delivers prepackaged meals. Ferndale Capt. Timothy Collins said the agency has cut its meal cost by at least 30%.

“At one point, we were using three different restaurants. Certainly, it’s not cost-effective,” he said.

The Kitchen Inc. in Madison Heights makes weekly deliveries to the Ferndale lockup of freshly prepared meals that can be frozen and heated in the microwave.

Company President Bob Watson said food deliveries also are made to lockups in Southfield Madison Heights and Royal Oak. Most get the same type of food: breakfast sandwich (such as sausage and egg) and orange juice for breakfast, and a pizza slice or hamburger and prepackaged juice for lunch and dinner.

Harper Woods, which budgets about $1,600 a month for prisoner meals, and some of the Grosse Pointes — such as Gross Pointe Park and Grosse Pointe Shores — still use restaurants for prisoner food. Pointes’ officers pick up the grub, whether it’s a restaurant meal or a sandwich from a gas station.

Rex’s Kelly Deli in Eastpointe delivers prisoner meals to Harper Woods police, saving officers time. The reduced-priced fare usually is a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a hamburger for lunch and piece of fried chicken and vegetables and salad for dinner, owner Rex Zink said, adding that he also accommodates special diets “the few and far between” times they are needed.

Nutrition and other concerns
Unlike county jails, which are inspected by the state corrections department, authorities said no agency oversees local lockups that usually house prisoners for up to 72 hours. Detroit is under a federal consent decree requiring quality, balanced nutrition.

Like at county jails, officials at local lockups provide three meals a day. Some lockups ask prisoners whether they have allergies or special diets, such as vegan or kosher, but said that is rarely an issue. Many keep orange juice on hand for diabetics.

Rana Elmir, communications director with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said “prisoner food must be in accordance with the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment — for instance, an inmate cannot be forced to eat food that he/she is allergic to or that is contaminated — and the First Amendment’s freedom of religion claim, which demands prisons supply inmates with food following their deeply held religious requirements.”

The ACLU is involved in a federal case that asks, in part, that Michigan prisons provide Muslim inmates halal food and allow them to participate in two annual feasts recognized as high holy days in Islam.

What it costs to feed prisoners
Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer said his agency budgeted $7,500 for prisoner food for a year. In September, it stopped serving danishes for breakfast and started handing out ham and cheese sandwiches, which also are served for lunch and dinner, Lt. Louis Galasso said. He said the move was made to save money and provide more nutritious meals.

Galasso said it’s rare for someone to be in the lockup long enough to get three meals. Most get two meals before being arraigned and released on bond or sent to the county jail. “The more choices you afford someone, the more complicated it gets,” he said.

While Livonia officers hand out wrapped danishes for breakfast or hamburgers or chicken sandwiches for lunch and dinner, those in Warren remove the wrapper and hand the sandwich to the prisoner on a paper towel. That’s to help prevent items from being stuffed into cell toilets to make them overflow. Neither lockup provides condiments, which can be smeared on walls and windows.

Livonia Capt. Robert Nenciarini said a May 27 vendor bill was $314 for cases of drinks, danishes and 150 sandwiches. Food is ordered every week to 10 days, putting the annual prisoner meal cost just over $16,000.

In Sterling Heights, a local market makes and delivers ham and cheese or turkey and cheese bagel sandwiches that are frozen and unthawed. Orange juice or coffee is provided. A pastry is given for breakfast, Lt. Luke Riley said. He said the budgeted cost for meals has dropped from $8,000 in 2007-08 to $6,500 in 2010-11 to reflect actual food bills.

“It’s decent and it fits the bill,” he said of the fare. “We’re not in the Hyatt Regency.”

jchev Food Services, Michigan

No one ever said life was easy behind bars, but it has become a bit more stressful for inmates in the Macomb County Jail. Story reported in the Free Press.

After mold was spotted in the jail’s 50-year-old freezers last month, inmates have been eating mostly bologna and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Gone are the warm, balanced meals.

And with no money to replace the freezers, the sandwich diets may continue through early next year, officials from the sheriff’s office said this morning.

County officials warned commissioners as early as 2005 that the freezers needed to be replaced.

Officials plan to ask commissioners for emergency funds next month to buy new refrigerators.

jchev Food Services, Illinois

State Prisoners in Oregon will have to make do without soda pop, according to KGW8.com

The state Department of Corrections announced Tuesday that it would remove soda from meal service to prisoners, effective Dec. 31, according to Michael F. Gower, a corrections administrator. In May, a tax watchdog group gave the department its “Golden Fleece Award” for wasting taxpayer money after learning that nearly $775,000 was spent on soda pop for prisoners between 2007 and 2009.

The primary reasons for this change are cost and health benefits. … Soda will be available for purchase by staff and inmates and we are working to add additional beverage items on the Commissary,” Gower said. Prisoners will now enjoy tea at meal time, a healthier option that’s “calorie free and provides nutrients and compounds shown to provide numerous health benefits,” Gower added. The state hopes the move will also lower health costs but did not offer further specifics on a long-range health regimen for prisoners.

jakking Food Services, Oregon

The Union of Solicitor General Employees (USGE), a component union of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), is launching a campaign to stop the federal government’s plan to close six farming operations run by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) over the next two years.

The Save Our Farms campaign launched a website (www.saveourfarms.ca) to provide information about the farm programs and to mobilize public opinion against shutting them down. Save Our Farms hosts an electronic petition and provides a conduit for sending protest e-mails directly to Prime Minister Harper.   Also, working closely with organizations such as the National Farmers Union, the campaign is organizing protest meetings and community support events in the communities that will be most affected by any closures. Save Our Farms also intends to pursue an Access to Information request to force the government to make public the rationale for the closures contained in the Strategic Review recently conducted by the department.

The goal is to mobilize public opinion to pressure the Conservative government to reverse “an incomprehensible and short-sighted decision,” says John Edmunds, USGE National President. “The Harper government has so far been unable to provide a sound rationale for eliminating prison farm programs. It is outrageous that this major decision was taken without a proper accounting of the true costs and benefits.”   Edmunds says the prison farms make many positive contributions both to inmates and to the communities where they are located, including:

• training in skills that directly or indirectly boost inmates’ employment chances upon release;
• more effective rehabilitation and integration of former inmates into the community;
• a low-cost source of food products for all federal penal Institutions,leading to taxpayer cost-savings; and,
• creating an effective, positive and visible presence in localcommunities through contributions to food banks and other charities.

“Rather than eliminating prison farm programs,” Edmunds says, “the government should be moving Correctional Service Canada in the other direction, increasing the availability of such programs and widening their scope.”

jakking Americas, Canada, Economic Issues, Food Services, INTERNATIONAL, Inmate Programs

The cash-strapped Oklahoma Department of Corrections has been able to offset the cost of feeding nearly 18,500 inmates daily because of an agricultural program that gives prisoners valuable skills, agency officials said.  Report from The Oklahoman.

In the past fiscal year, the agency’s Agriculture Services unit has earned more than $888,000 in profit from the sale of agriculture products such as beef, firewood and pecans, according to a report given to the Board of Corrections on Friday.   Ken Klinger, who oversees the unit, told board members the agency’s agriculture services not only makes a profit but gives inmates useful skills and occupies their time during incarceration.  “Making money on this is a side thing,” Klinger said. “The true value of this program is that we work with inmates and give them skills and help the agency save money on its food costs.”

Using vegetables or meat raised and processed within the prison system allows the agency to better control its daily cost of feeding inmates, said Justin Jones, Corrections Department director. It costs the department $2.42 a day to feed inmates three meals a day, the fourth lowest figure in the country, Jones said.  Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina have lower daily rates for feeding inmates.  “I’d say we’re feeding our inmates a little better,” Jones said. Menus in the state’s prison must be approved by a registered dietitian.

The state prisons’ agriculture services unit has a budget of $10.6 million and includes dairy and beef cattle operations, a meat processing plant, gardens where vegetables are grown and a facility where those vegetables are processed and frozen for use later in the year or by other facilities.

jakking Economic Issues, Food Services, Oklahoma

Prisoners in Georgia are now going without lunch three days in a row — the Department of Corrections recently eliminated midday meals on Fridays in addition to weekends.  Story from the CBC.

Prison officials in Georgia say inmates are still getting enough to eat because portions are bigger on two-meal days  … The decision to eliminate Friday lunches in Georgia is linked to another cost-cutting measure. To save on gas, the Department of Corrections changed the prisoners’ workweek from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days. Inmates got less food on weekends because they weren’t exerting themselves working, said Calvin Brown, the deputy director of facility operations at the Georgia Department of Corrections. Now that inmates don’t work on Fridays either, it makes sense to cut lunch on that day, too, he said. About five per cent of Georgia prisoners still get three meals a day because of special dietary needs from conditions like diabetes.

Critics say the cutbacks could lead to food hoarding and violence. Gordon Crews, a professor at Marshall University in West Virginia, wrote a book on violence in correctional systems. Food has been linked to prison violence in the past, he said. He cited the example of a riot at the Reeves County Detention Centre in Texas that was partly caused by poor quality food. Data obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request show that inmate assaults in Georgia have increased substantially this fiscal year. Prison officials denied the rise in violence is linked to cuts in food.

Prison administrators have seen inmate populations go up while budgets go down. The state of Georgia cut 10 per cent from the Department of Correction’s $1.1-billion budget this fiscal year. Food has been identified as an area where they can save money.

Ohio is also considering two-meal weekend menus by serving brunch instead of breakfast … Ohio prisons director Terry Collins said replacing breakfast with brunch on weekends “could save us some real dollars when it comes to staffing and food costs.” He said he doesn’t expect prisoners will be upset because the meals will be of the same quality. “I don’t expect them to be as good as mom’s home cooking,” he said. “But the food should be cooked and presented properly.”

jakking Economic Issues, Food Services, Georgia, Ohio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said on Friday that inmates will have to pay for better tasting food served in the Maricopa County AZ Sheriff’s Office jail system.  Story from KPHO.com.

Effective immediately, inmates will now be allowed to purchase a packet of food enhancements containing salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise through the inmate canteen at a cost of 50 cents each, Arpaio said. The move is predicted to generate about $1,100 per week or $57,000 a year, money which will go toward inmate programs to fight drug and alcohol dependency and parenting classes that help reduce domestic violence, the sheriff said.

About 1,800 inmates staged a hunger strike on May 2 to protest the quality of food they receive at Towers Jail, the Fourth Avenue Jail and Lower Buckeye Jail …

Arpaio also announced that on his birthday June 14, MCSO will serve “the first zero cost meal to feed 9,000 inmates.” “The kitchen staff is working diligently to determine how best to prepare this ’special’ meal in a way that won’t cause a ruckus from nearby neighbors,” he said in a news release. “The smell that will emanate from the kitchen is expected to be bad.”"I’m not sure inmates will like this particular meal much, but if I were an inmate, I’d love it,” Arpaio said. “It’s my personal favorite.”

jakking AZ Maricopa County, Arizona, Food Services

UN Deputy Envoy, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu has described an agricultural pilot project for inmates at the Liberian National Palace of Corrections “as a bold step towards institutionalizing active programs for rehabilitation of inmates.”

Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu described [the project] “as a bold step towards institutionalizing active programs for rehabilitation of inmates” … The program sets the basis for the development of an efficient and effective rehabilitation and reintegration program for prisoners … Under the pilot phase of this project, prison inmates will be taught farming skills on land inside the National Palace of Corrections (NCP), and the food they will grow will supplement their rations.

Minister [of Justice Philip] Banks expressed his hope that the project would be merely the beginning of rehabilitation projects in correctional facilities in Liberia and that it would prove beneficial for the inmates and the facility and assist in the inmates’ successful rehabilitation into society on their release. The Minister assured corrections officers during the visit that the Ministry of Justice could be called upon for assistance at any time but warned that absence from duty or harassment of inmates would not be tolerated …

Underscoring the need for rehabilitation of inmates as productive citizens, Ms. Mensa-Bonsu urged the communities around the prison to purchase the prison’s excess crops. “This will not only encourage the inmates to grow more, but would provide necessary funds to the Corrections Palace to improve the quality of life of the inmates,” she added. To the inmates, [she] advised: “there is dignity in labor; the sense of achievement and material benefits it will produce will ensure that your stay at this facility would be a watershed in your life.”

Source:  UN Mission in Liberia.

jakking Food Services, INTERNATIONAL, Inmate Labor, Liberia, Re-Entry

Price increases at prison snack shops have angered inmates and caused at least one reported case of violence at a Florida prison.  From the Miami Herald.

The state raised prices about three weeks ago under a new contract with an outside company. Since then, the department has gotten at least 60 phone calls and letters from inmates and their families complaining about the hikes.   The Department of Corrections says it’s working to see if some prices can be lowered, but costs are going up everywhere. Some of the price changes: Peanut M&Ms and Snickers (66 cents to 89 cents), a can of Coke (57 cents to 89 cents) and a Honey Bun pastry (66 cents to 99 cents).

jakking Florida, Food Services

For the first time in nearly 20 years, Linn County OR Jail has begun serving inmates a cold rather than a hot breakfast in order to save money.

In these tough financial times, “two hots and a cold” will save the county about $38,000 a year. The jail feeds an average population of 210 inmates.    The food service provider, Aramark, charges $1.50 per meal and provides three meals a day. The previous cost per meal was $1.64.  Aramark suggested changing to a cold breakfast as a way to save the jail some money. Capt. Barry Baggett of the sheriff’s office presented it to the sheriff, and he agreed …

Examples of the “continental” breakfast include peanut butter bars, hard-boiled eggs and fruit. Wednesday’s breakfast at the jail was a big biscuit with apple jelly and butter, a cinnamon roll, a cup of coffee and a carton of milk … Previous to the change, inmates were eating oatmeal, hot wheat cereal, hard-boiled and scrambled eggs, pancakes, or biscuits and gravy.

jakking Aramark, Economic Issues, Food Services, OR Linn County, Oregon

State Rep. John Proos said Gov. Granholm is putting public safety at risk through a state corrections budget that releases prisoners to make up for budget shortfalls.  Reported by the Herald-Palladium.

Proos wrote in a press release. “The governor has predicated her corrections budget on releasing nearly 3,886 prisoners. That is unacceptable, especially without first considering reforms and cost-saving measures.”  The governor should look for opportunities for reform, Proos said. Instead, her budget for the Michigan Department of Corrections would release 147 prisoners a day until Oct. 1, he said …

John Cordell, public information officer for the corrections department, said the department carefully evaluates prisoners before releasing them.   “Can we ensure that none of these 3,000 prisoners ever commit a crime again? No, we can’t,” Cordell said. “Nor can we assure the 12,000 prisoners we parole every year won’t commit a crime again.”    But the department is doing all it can to screen prisoners and to have support and re-entry systems in place to help them “become better citizens, viable and productive citizens,” Cordell said. That includes increasing the number of parole officers, increasing “real-time GPS tethers so we can accurately track where offenders are” and increasing funding for re-entry services from $25 million to $50 million in the next fiscal year, he said.

Proos said the state could save: $30 million by stopping corrections employee pay raises; $60 million by reducing overtime offered; $5 million by consolidating administrative offices; $3.5 million by streamlining transportation of prisoners; and $30 million by reducing cost of food services.   The June 2008 Auditor General’s report states: “The Department of Corrections should analyze the potential outcomes of hiring private contractors to provide prisoner meals at its correctional facilities … Based on these costs per prisoner per day, we estimate that Michigan could save from $10.2 million to $38 million annually” …

Cordell said the department has cut nearly $500 million from its budget since fiscal 2001-02. Releasing between 3,500 and 4,000 prisoners – all of whom are “past their minimum sentence date” – will save some $125 million in the next budget year, he added.

jakking Early Release, Economic Issues, Food Services, Michigan, Parole

Adams County PA will soon get into the culinary business – in jail.  Starting in June, the county will be providing its own food service at Adams County Prison. The current contractor, Aramark Food Services, chose to cancel its contract with the county effective June 18, as reported by the Hanover Evening Sun.

County Solicitor John Hartzell said the contract allowed for Aramark to choose not to renew with 90 days notice. The contractor planned on raising its rates by 25 cents per meal per prisoner, about a 5 percent increase. The county did not agree with the rate hike, believing they could do the job cheaper, or at least at the same cost as the contractor prior to the hike, Commissioner George Weikert said. Commissioners also said prison officials were not happy with the quality of the food served by Aramark …

Commissioner Glenn Snyder said some of the cost will be curtailed with the county in control because the county can use vegetables grown in the prison’s new garden. Vegetables from the garden were used last year, but there was no reduction in the contractor’s cost.   Weikert said that prisoner-maintained garden should yield more this year because it will be bigger, and will have better-quality soil …

Prior to the proposed rate increase, the contract was priced depending on the number of inmates. For example, at 151 to 160 prisoners, the cost was $1.58 per meal. It lowered in steps, such as to $1.37 per meal for 200 to 210 inmates and was $1.20 for 300 to 310 inmates.

jakking Aramark, Food Services, PA Adams County, Pennsylvania

Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) recent announcement that it plans to cut farm operations at six prisons, two of which in Kingston, Ontario, has raised eyebrows in some circles.  Report from Kingston This Week.

Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada, said the decision could prove beneficial if the money from the sales are used on new educational and rehabilitation programs for inmates.  “I have no idea what they’re going to do with that land, but it’s extremely valuable real estate,” said Jones, from his Kingston office. “If it’s sold and the money goes into new educations programs, I’ll be standing on the sidelines and cheering.”

Jones stressed he has nothing against the concept of inmates working a farms – something the National Farmers Union (NFU) says is an exceptional way for an inmate to learn life skills.  The question that lingers in his mind is whether the farming experience is beneficial enough that the government shouldn’t consider selling the land. He said he honestly doesn’t know the answer, as, to his knowledge, no recent studies have been done on the programs.  “I have not been able to locate a body of peer-reviewed evidence endorsing the prison-farm program, particularly given the huge demand for things like basic adult education,” he said …

The NFU believes the decision was short-sighted. Its president, Stewart Wells, wrote to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, expressing displeasure for writing off agriculture “as fundamental cornerstone of the Canadian economy.”   NFU executive-secretary Terry Pugh elaborated on issue, saying that inmates on penitentiary farms learn machinery skills and responsibility and social skills that can translate into any profession they may enter upon release.“The attitude that these inmates aren’t learning anything useful because farming is an obsolete career path is very upsetting to us,” he said.

jakking Canada, Food Services, Inmate Programs

Vermont inmates who use utensils to throw bodily waste or food can’t be placed on a special diet without first going through a disciplinary process, a divided Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday.  This report from the Burlington Free Press.

The court ruled that before inmates can be fed only water and Nutraloaf, a nutritionally complete but unappetizing concoction, they must be given due process of law … Vermont Human Services Secretary Rob Hofmann, who oversees the Department of Corrections, said prison staff would abide by the Supreme Court ruling, but he was disappointed.   “It effectively will require us to wait 24 hours and then hold a hearing,” said Hofmann, who until November was the state’s Corrections commissioner. “It will afford offenders a minimum of three more occasions to use waste, food or utensils to assault our colleagues” …

Nutraloaf and its variations have been used across the country for decades.  It is designed to be a complete meal served without utensils. It is made of whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, carrots, canned spinach, raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and potato flakes, mashed together and baked in a loaf pan.    In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an equivalent food used in Arkansas might be tolerable for a few days, but “intolerably cruel for weeks or months.” In 1988, a federal judge ruled the Michigan Department of Corrections’ use of Nutraloaf was punishment …

In a dissent, Chief Justice Paul Reiber said the majority decision undermined the department’s ability to manage the state’s prisons because some inmates might prefer sandwiches to prison food.  “The department faces a Hobson’s choice of either providing misbehaving inmates with their choice of foods that are likely more appetizing than standard prison fare, thereby encouraging the very behavior that it needs to prevent, or simply doing nothing,” said Reiber’s dissent.

jakking Food Services, Vermont

Feeding inmates, tending to their medical needs and a possibility that crime could increase this year were all topics Stephens County OK Sheriff Wayne McKinney shared with county commissioners this week, as reported by the Duncan Banner.

To feed a county inmate these days averages about $3.30 a day. McKinney told the commissioners that he’s hoping to reduce that to about $2.50 to $2.75 a day.   In January, the budget for food and beverage was set at $15,725 and expenses came in at $4,600.25 under that allotted amount. The expenses totaled $11,124.75 for the month.  McKinney told the commissioners there is a lot of work being done to control those expenses. One measure includes having a nutritionist so healthier meals are served and not so much “chicken fried steak.” … There were 10,092 meals prepared.

The Sheriff also discussed rising health care costs and how he is working to alleviate the problem.

Now those inmates will have to pay a $5 fee each time they visit a nurse and they will be charged for over-the-counter drugs, such as cold medicines, if they request them. McKinney hopes that will reduce some of those costs, which ultimately come out of taxpayers’ pockets.  “It’s not our responsibility to supply them with those drugs,” he said. “Hopefully, this will curb those requests. That system is prime for abuse.”

jakking Economic Issues, Food Services, Inmate Health Care, OK Stephens County

The agency that runs Louisiana’s prisons is trying to cut costs by turning kitchen grease into biodiesel fuel.

State Rep. Tom McVea … warned state Department of Corrections’ officials that they will have to be creative.  “Y’all got quite a challenge on your hands. … There’s got to be some innovative thinking,” McVea said during a meeting of the legislative Subcommittee on Public Safety and Corrections.   With state general fund revenue expected to drop by $1.2 billion in the upcoming budget year that starts July 1, agencies are slashing travel, halting hiring and looking for other ways to trim costs …

The corrections department is vulnerable because 88 percent of its $543 million budget comes from the state general fund, which is suffering a downturn in revenue. The agency spends 70 percent of its budget — or $382 million — on salaries and benefits.  The agency’s undersecretary, Thomas Bickham, said his agency is trying to cut costs through privatizing services such as food.   He said the department also is buying equipment to turn kitchen grease into biodiesel fuel.  “We produce a lot of grease at our institutions. We fry a lot of food for these guys,” Bickham said.

There is more information from The Advocate.

jakking Economic Issues, Environment and Energy, Food Services, Louisiana

Two new programs that provide additional work opportunities for inmates at the Bradford County PA jail are now up and running, the warden said.  The Daily Review reports:

Last month, the county moved its print shop from the Bradford County Courthouse to the jail.   The print shop is now up and running at its new location, said Warden Donald Stewart … Inmates who work at the print shop are going to have the opportunity to become certified by the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute, Stewart told the prison board at its meeting on Thursday.  “That (certification) will help them hopefully with their job skills,” the warden said.   A few weeks ago, a new program was launched at the jail under which a number of female inmates launder linens that are brought over from the Bradford County Manor, Stewart said …

The warden also said that the jail’s kitchen will be saving approximately $4,000 to $5,000 a year by making a number of food items on its own, rather than purchasing pre-made items.

jakking Food Services, Inmate Labor, Inmate Programs, PA Bradford County, Pennsylvania, Re-Entry

The director of the Iowa Department of Corrections says it would be a mistake to delay several prison construction projects, despite a $700-million shortfall in the state budget. Radio Iowa reports:

The state is borrowing $200-million to expand the Women’s institution at Mitchellville and replace the State Penitentiary at Fort Madison.   The money will also be used to build new community based corrections facilities in Ottumwa, Sioux City, and Waterloo. Prior to the legislative session some lawmakers proposed delaying construction, but D-O-C Director John Baldwin says there is a constitutional issue at stake. “(Prisons) must provide reasonable standards of housing and care,” Baldwin said. “Iowa’s been down that road once and lost that conversation in the early 1980s. We really, as a state, cannot go down that path.” Baldwin says if the state postpones construction and the courts intervene – it will cost taxpayers a lot more money in the long run …

Meanwhile, two key members of the Iowa legislature say they oppose selling farm land currently operated by the state’s prison system. Governor Culver has discussed selling the property in Fort Madison to help offset the state budget shortfall. But, Senator Gene Fraise, a Democrat from Fort Madison, says the short-term gain would not be enough to offset the loss of jobs and fresh produce the farms provide to the state’s prisons. “If we sold those farms off we would hurt the Prison Industries Program pretty dramatically,” Fraise said. “I would like to keep those farms and expand more on the vegetables and keep (prisoners) out in the fields working rather than sitting in cells.”

jakking Economic Issues, Food Services, Iowa, Jail and Prison Construction

Albany County NY lawmakers, in what was described as a first of its kind policy in the region, approved a measure Monday night to buy locally-grown food for the jail and nursing home.

Tim Nichols, the lead sponsor, said if the “county dedicates just 10 percent of its food purchases” for the two facilities, “local farmers would share some $270,000 in county dollars annually.”   Not only does the proposal support local farmers but ensures that much of the food consumed at the jail or by nursing home residents would be fresh produce and meats, Nichols said.   “It behooves all of us to make sure people in our care receive fresh produce and other goods to help them stay healthy,” he said. He estimates it costs $3 million annually to feed inmates and nursing home residents.

Reported by the Albany Times Union.

jakking Food Services, NY Albany County

Florida is now coping with the effects of a failed and expensive food-privatization venture.

In 2001, Florida turned over most prison food operations to Aramark Corp., even after Ohio had scrapped a similar experiment with bad results.  After seven years marked by numerous irregularities, fines for sloppy service and a state report that flagged the vendor’s “windfall” profits, Aramark pulled out of Florida prisons last month. The firm said it could no longer make money due to skyrocketing prices of bread, milk and other staples amid pressure from the state to cut costs [see earlier reporting] …

Now that the vendors are gone, the privatization experiment is officially dead and the state must run an in-house meals program on less money amid the worst budget crisis in decades.  In fiscal 2007-08, Florida paid two private vendors a total of $85 million. The current year’s food budget is $76 million.  Aramark’s per-diem rate, or cost per day to feed an inmate, was $2.69. Now it’s $2.12, which will force the state to make menu changes to save money.  Corn bread replaces sliced bread at some meals. Inmates will get one sweetener packet instead of four. In the prisons of the Sunshine State, orange juice is made from concentrate …

Feeding 100,000 inmates three meals a day is an expensive business. And doing it right is a major factor in avoiding unrest … Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil has come under fire from legislators for not reducing his food budget by the $9.25 million that the Legislature ordered last spring. “We won’t do it in the time we were directed to do it,” McNeil told a legislative budget panel last week.

There is more detail in the St Petersburg Times.

jakking Florida, Food Services