Vol. 73/No. 27      July 20, 2009

The department says Friday lunches are no longer necessary because the workweek for prisoners has been changed from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days. Officials claim that breakfast and dinner portions are bigger on the two meal days so that prisoners still get the same number of calories.

Georgia’s prison system is the fifth largest in the United States.

Working people locked up in neighboring Alabama don’t fare any better. In January a federal judge jailed Morgan County sheriff Greg Bartlett for contempt for failing to adequately feed inmates.

Since the depression of the 1930s, Alabama law allows sheriffs to keep any profits from feeding prisoners. Currently sheriffs there receive $1.75 a day for each prisoner. Bartlett managed to pocket $62,000 in 2007 and $55,000 in 2006 from this princely sum. CBS news reported that at the court hearing where 10 prisoners testified “most of the inmates appeared thin, with baggy jail coveralls hanging off their frames.”

Prisoners told the judge that most days their breakfast—at 3:00 a.m.—consisted of half an egg, a spoonful of oatmeal, and a piece of toast. Lunch was a handful of chips and two sandwiches with barely enough peanut butter to taste. “It looks like it was sprayed on with an aerosol can,” testified Demetrius Hines.

In response to complaints that prisoners are almost always hungry after meals in the Morgan County jail, the head of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association admitted those complaints are widespread across the state. “You’re never going to be able to satisfy them,” he said.

The temporary jailing of Bartlett has not deterred Alabama officials from new “savings” plans at the expense of those behind bars. At the beginning of June the state reduced the amount of fresh fruit served to prisoners to one apple or orange a week—down from the previous “generous” twice-weekly portion. Milk was cut from seven servings a week to three.

The state of Ohio is considering replacing weekend breakfasts and lunch with brunch. Other states are also cutting back on milk and fresh fruit.

Prisoners at Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, Texas—operated by private prison company Geo Group, Inc.—rioted in December and again in February to demand better medical care and food, the media reported.

On February 5 the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice asking for an investigation of conditions at the detention center. Five months later they have still not received any answer.  
 
 
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