Jail inmates get balanced meals
BROOKSVILLE –
Some walk out with their pants looser, but others leave the jail fattened up a little more too, James Johnston said.
If an inmate at the Hernando County Jail is heavy and lives off a diet of fast food, he will leave lighter on his feet. If he’s abusing drugs and comes in below his ideal weight, he will walk out better nourished and looking and feeling healthier.
Those kinds of weight fluctuations were first noticed by Johnston more than 15 years ago when he started his career in corrections. Oftentimes people eat better when they’re incarcerated, he said.
“Those are the things you learn when you take over a jail,” said Lt. Shaun Klucznik, who is the operations supervisor.
On Tuesday for lunch, inmates were served a turkey bologna sandwich on two pieces of white bread. They also got a tray full of black beans, mustard greens and a pouch of fruit juice.
For dinner later that afternoon, they were served with pasta and meat balls, broccoli, a cup of tossed salad, two slices of bread and a pack of cookies.
Breakfasts come with cereal, milk and juice.
Some of it is processed. Some of it is fresh. The food tastes better than the average frozen dinner. The portions are larger, too.
Inmates at the jail consume roughly 2,000 calories per day, Johnston said.
He’s been in the food service industry since he was 14 years old. He’s prepped food, cooked it, served it and has the famous food group pyramid etched in his brain.
Any allegation that inmates are malnourished or even remotely underserved is politely but sternly dismissed by Johnston, who is a certified correctional food manager and jail inspector.
He talked extensively about the nutritional values of the meals at the jail and their costs. He pointed out the Florida Department of Health carries out unannounced inspections every three months.
Johnston said internal criticism hasn’t been all that common.
“I’d say less than 1 percent of the population complains,” he said. “Some may be used to eating three Big Macs a day in some cases, but we can’t do that here.”
Johnston was hired eight months ago by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office to oversee the kitchen at the jail, which was officially taken over by the agency in August 2010.
Both he and Klucznik know the importance of providing sizable and flavorful portions to inmates.
For starters, most jail inmates haven’t been convicted of anything, Johnston said. For that reason, living arrangements are expected to be Spartan, but not harsh. Secondly, uprisings inside any detention facility often start as a result of what is being served in the kitchen, they said.
“That’s corrections 101,” Klucznik said of providing inmates with adequate meals.
Breakfasts are served at 4:30 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at 4 p.m. Inmates wear a name tag when they go through the line and a correctional officer crosses the name off the list.
They eat in an area away from the cell blocks.
Those dozen or so inmates who work the “assembly-line” style jobs inside the kitchen earn one-and-a-half days off their sentence for every 40 hours of work, said Johnston. Only certain kinds of inmates are chosen. In other words, those with a history of violence are not picked.
The inmates were not allowed to speak to the media who were visiting the facility Tuesday.
In Marion County, there is a livestock farm that supplies fish, pork and beef products to the inmates at the Ocala jail.
It’s a concept Johnston looks on with admiration.
“We have visions of doing that and growing into something bigger,” he said. “Those are the challenges. That is what we’re living for.”
Johnston worked for 16 years in corrections in Pasco County. In 2001, he was recognized as the Dietary Manager of the Year in Florida, according to his biographical information.
He’s served on the board of directors for the Suncoast Harvest Food Bank.
In 2009, he left Pasco County. By that point, he supervised all of the agency’s kitchen operations.
He worked in the jail system in Hillsborough County as a unit manager for a private food service contractor for one year before being hired by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
Johnston’s menu worksheet looks a little different on holidays. In an effort to prove he has the inmates’ health and well-being constantly in mind, he showed copies of what he served them on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
For the latter, he looked up King’s favorite foods and tried to incorporate some of it in the lunch and dinner menus. It included corn bread, barbecued pork, mashed potatoes and a corn cobbette. For dinner, he served hot dogs.
New Year’s Day included black-eyed peas. Christmas included cinnamon buns and a peppermint stick. Thanksgiving included turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce.
Johnston’s smile never left his face when he talked about his job.
His attention to budgetary restraints also never leaves his mind, he said.
“These are balanced meals,” said Johnston. “I make the adjustments I need to make according to the market … and what I can acquire.”
Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected].
