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| Dessert Won't Be Removed from Minn. Prison Meals |
| By Minneapolis Star Tribune |
| Published: 04/14/2003 |
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It might not be cruel or even unusual, but we now know it doesn't pay to keep the state's prison inmates from the apple brown betty and lime green Jell-O. A portion of a bill that would eliminate desserts for prisoners, designed as a cost-saving measure, was removed in the House Judiciary Committee on April 2 when a financial analysis determined it would actually cost more money to deny prisoners dessert. 'Only in government do we take something away and it costs us more money. Or only in Minnesota,' said Rep. Marty Seifert, the sponsor of the measure. Meanwhile, the committee voted to recommend that provisions permitting double-bunking at the St. Cloud and Stillwater prisons to relieve overcrowding be included in an overall corrections bill. It also approved two measures for the same bill that push plans for contracting with the private prison industry to house more of the state's inmates. Seifert's dessert bill may have been designed more as a tweak at the easy target of the state's prisoners, especially given planned cuts in other meal programs, such as Meals on Wheels for seniors. But, in what might be a classic example of the oddities of public policy, the House committee was told that replacement items would be needed to meet mandatory nutritional needs under accreditation standards of the American Correctional Association. The math would not add up to savings, corrections officials warned. Consider: The average cost of a dessert, served 12 times a week, is 10 cents a serving. The average cost of a replacement item of equal caloric value would be 22 cents for two pieces of fruit, or 43 cents for a protein item. Twelve cents x 624 servings x 7,200 offenders = an additional $539,000 a year. 'Your elderly are not entitled to food, but you go out and beat somebody up and somehow you are entitled to food,' a frustrated Seifert said in removing the dessert portion from the table. Seifert, however, was able to keep another provision of the bill that would limit meals for prisoners on weekends and holidays to brunch and dinner. Corrections officials asked for some leeway for prisoners at the boot camp in Moose Lake, at the state's juvenile facility in Red Wing and for special dietary concerns, such as diabetes. But officials indicated they were generally supportive of the plan, which would save an estimated $248,000 a year. The prison in St. Cloud already has a brunchlike program on weekends. At $3.07 a day per prisoner, Minnesota is 26th in the nation in the cost of feeding its prison population, said Dennis Benson, an assistant commissioner of corrections. 'I challenge you to go out and have a cup of coffee and a doughnut for $3.07,' Benson said. |
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