Behind the Walls: A Guide for Families and Friends of Texas Prison Inmates

3. Food

13 Inmates in Texas prison eat in the chow halls because they have to, not because they want.Any chef will tell you that the quality of a meal drops with the amount of people you have to feed. In TDCJ, minimally trained cooks prepare from 1,000 to 3,000 meals three times a day, under minimal quality standards, and with only the pride they and an occasional professional wearing TDCJ gray bring to their jobs. The courts have ruled, and rightly so, that good taste cannot be dictated. The standard applied to institutional meals is that they be hot and nutritious. In turn, state dieticians and various medical experts set out the nutritional standards TDCJ follows. Inmates get three meals a day, and if an inmate eats all that he is offered, he will be assured of the minimal daily requirements of vitamins and minerals that medical experts say he needs to survive. Meals consist of: three four-ounce servings of three different vegetables; a four-ounce serving of beans; a scoop of potatoes or rice; a piece of meat (except at breakfast); two pieces of bread, or two biscuits, or a three inch square of cornbread; and dessert at lunch (which can be cake, pie, gelatin, or pudding). That’s it. If you complain, or ask for more, chances are good that the staff will take your tray and order you from the chow hall. food Chapter three 14 Chapter Three Substitutions are left to the menu—rice instead of potatoes, two cookies instead of cake. But the basics will not change—so many ounces of vegetables , so many starches, beans, meat, and a dessert. There are units where inmates are allowed to serve themselves more vegetables and may take a larger portion of the main dish, if it is spaghetti or a casserole. Many units have placed a metal screen between the food and the inmates , who hand empty trays through a slot in the beginning of the serving line and are handed a full tray through another slot at the end of the line. But if there is no screen between those eating and those serving on a unit where the kitchen staff enforces the suggested servings, an inmate who asks for more food is likely to receive a disciplinary case for attempting to get another scoop of beans. If this isn’t enough to drive inmates crazy, they are also aware of the tremendous amount of food that the average chow hall throws away after each meal. But TDCJ chow hall officers are governed by the fear that if one inmate asks for and receives extra food, all will. Then the last inmates will have nothing to eat, thus grinding the huge machine to a halt, bringing sergeants and captains and majors into the chow hall looking for someone to blame. To the institutional mind, it’s better to make extra food, give inmates the minimum and throw the surplus away. On to the food itself. Contrary to popular belief, steak is never served in TDCJ. Meat portions will be: 1) pork, in its infinite varieties—chops, ham cutlets, fatty ribs (once or twice a year), pressed ham, and the everpresent “links” (steamed, baked or barbecued); 2) chicken, in either leg/ thigh quarters or patties; 3) bologna or salami; 4) fish, of the breaded, processed type, supplemented by the occasional salmon patty or tuna salad; and 5) beef or rather a rubbery substance that the state swears is beef with added filler. Fresh fruit is non-existent, except on Christmas and Thanksgiving, when inmates are given an apple and orange. (The Christmas and Thanksgiving meals are excellent, with most inmates given two trays of twicea -year goodies.) The only fruit given inmates on a regular basis is dates, raisins, and prunes. Once or twice a week, with the breakfast meal, inmates receive a two-ounce serving of canned fruit, usually apples or applesauce. Watermelons and cantaloupes will be served for a week or two, when they are in season and there is enough after the Officers’ Food 15 Dining Room [ODR] gets its allotment. There are no strawberries, grapes, or bananas. Fresh vegetables are given when they are in season, and are usually limited to lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, beets, and many types of beans and greens. Inmates will never see fresh celery, asparagus, or cauliflower— nothing other than what is grown in...