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| Mississippi Jail Feeds Inmates for $2 a Day |
| By The Daily Journal |
| Published: 12/19/2005 |
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It's hard to imagine spending less than $2 on a decent meal, much less spending that much for a day's worth of food. But Mississippi's Lee County Sheriff's Department does it every day for hundreds of inmates in the adult jail, juvenile jail and work center. Sheriff Jim Johnson reported the numbers to county supervisors this month. The weekly average to feed Lee County inmates in October was $2,923 for 240-250 inmates at $1.67 per prisoner for three meals a day. In November, the weekly average was $3,011, for 269-270 inmates, at $1.65 per inmate. Kitchen supervisor Vince Kutka said the national average to feed inmates, as of January 2005, is $2.50 per day. "We have saved approximately $60,000 a year from the national average," Kutka said. "I am sure the national average has gone up since then." The figures are higher now than in summer months, when inmate work crews harvest their own vegetables from a garden in Verona overseen by the Mississippi State University Extension Service. "They experiment with different vegetables and use inmate labor," Johnson said. Kutka is quick to add that the low cost to feed inmates is no reflection on the quality of food. Every day, kitchen crews prepare two hot meals, breakfast and supper, and sandwiches for lunch. Johnson said there are few complaints about the food from inmates. "We've never had a substantiated complaint," he said. "We are required by the Department of Justice and the Health Department to meet certain standards. ... The food is good, but this is not a restaurant. We don't want people to want to come back here to eat." |
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