A Mother Laments Poor Jail and Prison Food

June Wells writes the following rerport of food served in
the jails and prisons in which her daughter served a
three-year sentence.

This is the complete version of a column published in a condensed form in today's Daily-News-Record. It is the fourth of the Valley Justice Coalition's monthly Justice Matters columns, posted here with the actual names of the jails and prisons the author refers to.

Food is such an important part of everyone’s life, something that is certainly true of the millions in  our country who spend endless years in our jails and prisons. I became especially concerned about jail and prison food when my daughter was sentenced to time in our local jail and in each of Virginia’s three state prisons for women,

What I am writing here is simply based on what she shared with me during that time and in the years since she has been released. I don’t claim to be an authority on this subject, and I hope many of the problems I am describing have been remedied. But what I hear from many who have loved ones behind bars I know there are still a lot of food issues that need to be addressed. Examples are meals with too many carbs, too few vegetables and fruits, and inferior kinds of meat products.

I’m told food served at our local jail has improved over the past years, but when my daughter was there they were often served a soy product with little actual meat and with an unappetizing smell. A kool aid type drink, served from a large canister, seemed to give the inmates UTI’s. 

She also spent some time at the Middle River Regional Jail before being transferred to the Department of Corrections (DOC) for the remainder of her time. There they served a chicken based product she said smelled and looked horrible and sat on the plates in a pool of fat. The hot dogs they served frequently were of an unappetizing color, taste and texture. Dry beans, also served regularly, were seldom thoroughly cooked, and occasionally contained foreign objects. Starches were consistently overcooked, and vegetables improperly prepared. The one decent item on the menu was a boiled egg. 

At Fluvanna Correctional Center, the intake facility for women, she never felt they were given enough calories to feel satisfied. The meat they served, called “meatrock,” was laden with fat and so bad they couldn’t tell from day to day exactly what was being served. There were days when there was no breakfast or often only a small pancake, with security guards walking by the tables with small doses of syrup dispensed from a jug. 

My daughter’s best food experience was at Goochland Correctional Center, where she worked in the kitchen. There she had access to the food served to the correctional officers and administration, and where she had the rare opportunity to eat a cube of cheese or a piece of raw carrot or celery. Mashed potatoes were served with skins on, and with some kitchen staff washing them and cutting them in half without checking for bad spots. Peanut butter came in 20 lb. bags stored in cardboard boxes, and was called “moon sand” because it was dry, gritty and sticky. It was at Goochland where she saw boxes of chicken bulk labeled “not for human consumption—not fully processed.”  The smell was horrible, and after being cooked the broth was green or yellow in color. 

My daughter was moved to State Farm Correctional Center when she was accepted for work release. While waiting for her job assignment, she had to eat regular prison food again. Sometimes grasshoppers, worms and beetles were in the vegetables grown on the State Farm property, and the kitchen was known to be infested with roaches and mice. It was not uncommon to have weevils in the flour and cornmeal, and fish was served that smelled of bleach and chemicals. 

My daughter and the women with whom she was incarcerated constantly reported having digestive problems, and there were cases of heartburn, nausea, indigestion, constipation, gas and diarrhea on a regular basis, along with reports of high blood pressure, ulcers, and UTI’s. 

She also noted that the contract with DOC’s vendors, the Keefe Company, which supplies inmate commissary items, allows everyone to win except the inmate. The Keefe Company charges exorbitant prices for highly salted, oily or sugary items inmates buy to supplement meals they often see as “unfit for human consumption.”

I know this is just one person’s story, but I felt it needed to be told. And while I agree people should be held responsible for their offenses, feeding bad food should not be a part of the punishment.

June Wells

Rockingham, Virginia