Hold the jelly or the bread

With prices rising, prisoners see cuts in staples and extras, such as coffee

By RAQUEL RUTLEDGE
rrutledge@journalsentinel.com

Posted: May 1, 2008

As global food prices soar, corrections facilities across the country and in Wisconsin are trimming some of the extras from their menus and devising other creative ways to save cash.

Behind bars in Clark County, Wash., jelly has vanished from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Bread is becoming luxury of sorts for inmates in Wisconsin.

And those locked in the Milwaukee County jail could soon see dessert disappear.

"Why should they get dessert?" said Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. "I don't even get dessert every day at home. . . . They have to absorb this, too."

Clarke said he'll also look at swapping hot meals for cold and making other cuts when the department's contract with food service giant Aramark expires in the fall.

"As long as the taxpayers have to struggle with rising food costs and eat more Hamburger Helper, as long as they have to adjust their living and eating habits, why should they have to pay increased costs for people who have disregarded society's rules?"

The overall price of food jumped 4.5% from March 2007 to March 2008, and certain foods skyrocketed during the same period, according to the Department of Labor. Eggs shot up 30% for example, and milk jumped 13%.

Food costs for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections have jumped about 12% to $1.11 per meal so far in 2008, said Earl Fischer, administrator for the department's division of management services.

And although for the first time in three years the state boosted the budget in anticipation of cost increases, Fischer said food service workers have still had to make adjustments to the menu to meet the budget.

"It's a challenge," Fischer said. "We're doing some creative things."

For one, the department is mixing soy into some of its meat mixtures.

In addition, it is cutting back on chicken and turkey and rationing bread, Fischer said.

Inmates are still receiving calorically and nutritionally adequate meals with the proper vitamins and proteins, Fischer said.

The department has also expanded its gardening program, increasing the sizes and numbers of gardens throughout the system.

So far the department has cut coffee from about half its facilities and is gradually weaning inmates at the remaining sites.

"There's no health value in coffee," he said.

Ricky Clark, president of the Association of Correctional Food Service Affiliates, said he wouldn't dare stop brewing coffee for inmates in the Virginia Department of Corrections facilities.

"It's the highlight of their day," Clark said. "We refused to do that. They automatically become irritable and harder to control."

Clark said they've taken other measures in Virginia, such as less frequent ordering and more freezing of food.

They've already been watering down milk into a "milk product," so there's no place to cut there.

"It's about as low as we can go," he said.

Angela Sewel recently spent 18 months at Wisconsin's Taycheedah Correctional Institution.

Sewel started noticing changes on her food tray before she was released in October.

"We used to get two slices of bread, then we got one. We only got a half a scoop of vegetables instead of a full scoop," she said. "They ran out of milk . . . the soda was being watered down. They really cut back."

Not a wise move, said Charles Sullivan, executive director of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants. Meals are more than physical necessities, they can affect inmates' mental well-being, Sullivan said.

"Eating is the most important event of the day that inmates look forward to," he said. Making undesirable changes such as cutting dessert can cause a "great deal of unrest . . . and be very detrimental," he said.

In Clark Co., Wash., where jailers cut the jelly from the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, food services manager Clark Campbell said he's looked for other ways besides food to save money, such as ditching disposable cups.

"You're in a corner. I've still got people to feed and a nutritional line to hold," Campbell said. "Everybody is just trying to ride this."