Fine Prison Dining: The Cheese (and Bacteria) Come a la Carte

The notorious "melt memo"

When Jackie Ullrich and Joan Covici got word through the Texas Inmate Families Association that more than 600 inmates in the Darrington unit of the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice had taken ill, they were sure they'd found a smoking gun. On July 3, around 5pm, TDCJ officials learned that 115 inmates in the 1,842-bed facility in Rosharon were ill with queasy stomachs, diarrhea, and fever, among other symptoms. By July 8 the number of sick offenders had jumped to 617. According to TDCJ, the Texas Dept. of Health was called in and officials tested 13 inmates for salmonella poisoning; 10 tested positive for the food-borne illness.

But while nearly half of the inmate population may have contracted the sometimes-fatal illness, not one of the Darrington guards reported symptoms of salmonella poisoning. For Ullrich and Covici this was public proof of what they had long suspected -- that inmates and guards are served different foods. "They say the men are all being served the same food," says Covici, president of the Dallas chapter of the ACLU, "but they're not."

Ullrich and Covici say that TDCJ inmates get small portions, are "cheated" out of proteins, loaded up on carbohydrates -- to make them "logy," Covici says -- and are never served fresh fruits or salads. In contrast, they say, TDCJ's correctional officers have a plethora of food options -- including a salad bar and homemade ice cream -- and are free to consume as much as they want. The situation, they contend, is a clear violation of a 1995 state law that says, in part, that TDCJ "may provide food items to employees in employee dining facilities, only after the food requirements of inmates are met," and that the food served to inmates "shall be of the same quality as food served to employees." The women allege that this provision is not followed, not only leaving inmates hungry but also encouraging a black market for food items that inmates with kitchen jobs are able to steal -- notably the 160-slice, five-pound blocks of processed cheese, which Ullrich says are a hot commodity because inmates don't get enough dairy.

TDCJ officials deny their charges. "[The employee food] is seasoned a little bit better, I can tell you that," said TDCJ spokesman Larry Fitzgerald, "but it's basically the same menu." TDCJ has staff dieticians, he says, to ensure that everything is nutritionally balanced. Fitzgerald confirms that TDCJ got no reports of sick guards from the Darrington unit, but says that is because the food is prepared in a different area of the unit's big kitchen. "There's only one kitchen," he said, "but the entrees [for inmates and officers] are prepared in different areas."

Ullrich and Covici aren't surprised by the official response -- and they don't buy it. Ullrich, whose son is serving a 20-year prison sentence, got involved with TIFA nearly eight years ago and was surprised by how many inmates throughout the system were complaining about food. "I'll never believe what [TDCJ] says about this," she says, "because [the complaints] have been so constant and are coming from so many [different] units and so many different men."

And she and Covici, who has been working on prison issues for the ACLU for nearly 15 years, say they have more than enough paperwork to prove their case. They have a host of written inmate complaints, letters to and from TDCJ officials, stacks of inmate and officer menus, and several choice internal memos that they say support their claims. For example, according to one menu, for lunch on August 26, 2001, inmates at one unit were served tuna noodle casserole, lima beans, macaroni, carrots, pudding, sliced bread, and tea. In contrast, the officer menu included tuna noodle casserole, chicken patties, macaroni and cheese, baked potatoes, lima beans, greens, carrots, soup, biscuits, salad bar, assorted desserts, and punch or tea.

Ullrich says the biggest problem is that inmates aren't having their nutritional needs met, despite official assurances to the contrary. "Meals prepared for offenders are specifically required to meet all guidelines outlined in the USDA Food Guide Pyramid," TDCJ Executive Director Gary Johnson wrote to Ullrich in a Jan. 9 letter. "Our Agency works diligently to ensure all meals served are wholesome and nutritious." But Ullrich says she has numerous examples, from various units, that contradict Johnson's claim. For example, the ground beef used to prepare hamburgers or meat loaf for the offenders is routinely mixed with cereal, diluting the amount of protein they get, she says.

And TDCJ cooks regularly skimp on dairy, offering inmates one-and-a-half servings per day versus the two or three servings recommended by the USDA, Ullrich adds. She claims some units employ strategies to make it appear inmates are getting enough dairy. "Instead of regular cheese they use shredded cheese," she said. "It looks like a lot more, but it's not." Most recently, Ullrich says she has uncovered yet another "scheme" for diluting dairy intake, outlined in a departmental communication she calls the "notorious 'melt memo.'" In a letter to TDCJ ombudsman Jane Cockerham, Ullrich writes: "[I]n a devious and crafty scheme to stifle complaints by prisoners who are served too few slices of cheese," she wrote, "one of your ... Food Service Managers has ordered all cheese to be melted and then poured on the prisoners' food." The melting scheme, she wrote, "denies prisoners the opportunity to count the number of slices being served and thus thwarts any legitimate complaints about short servings." At press time Ullrich had not yet received a response from TDCJ.

Fitzgerald says he's never heard of the "melt memo" and insists that TDCJ's inmates eat well. "If anything, a lot of those guys probably need to lose some weight," he said. He suggests that Ullrich and Covici may be misled by the one constant of prison life. "Obviously the people in the ACLU are not in the system," he said. "Inmates always complain."