Security Considerations in Prison Food
The corn dogs don’t have sticks in them.
Comments
Jimbob • September 26, 2007 12:42 PM
Shank of lamb couldnt do much damage, surely.
sehlat • September 26, 2007 12:46 PM
Hmmm. Sharpened drumstick goodness?
-ac- • September 26, 2007 1:10 PM
Nice. After the Chinese toothpaste scandal I wonder how much contamination is in the prison food outright.
Spider • September 26, 2007 1:13 PM
I suppose the fascists will go ahead and ban chainsaw chili, claymore casserole, and laser cannon lasagna as well.
skavnak • September 26, 2007 1:45 PM
Bruce: Can we expect a “restaurant” review of the Hennepin County Adult Corrections Facility anytime soon?
Jephthai • September 26, 2007 3:29 PM
Great… now if the wrong people watch this, they’ll take the sticks out of the corndogs at the airport.
scramasax • September 26, 2007 3:45 PM
around here there was hells angels in the prison same prison as another gang, that gang was doing the kitchen work so the prisoner were waiting to see what that gang will eat and avoir everything else because they were putting every kink of things in the food for the hells angels to eat.
Twm • September 26, 2007 5:29 PM
I guess peanuts are banned since they could be used as a chemical weapon against a peanuts sensitive prisoner.
Tam • September 26, 2007 11:00 PM
Okay, you have reduced me to tears.
All the knowledge, all the evolution, all the science we have, but we still have to lock up human beings, even if they are non-violent, and feed them as if they are ill-respected hogs. I understand, some of them (small percentage) are detrimental to the rest of us as we work, live and parent. Most I suspect, should be in a rehab environ instead of a lockup. For confirmation of that, interview those in charge of the prisoners, ask for data from those who really see and know the inmates that we dealing with.
The industries that humans come up with to deal (badly and ineffectively) with their issues depresses me greatly .
I am greatly depressed to realize again and again that our human processes are regulated by money and not by our humanity . Don’t call me TOO liberal until you run the logic and dollars for yourself–this is an expensive and emotional waist of time for all.
Prisons should be run by a federally controlled system, not by state/local. It is important to remove bias from the system.
And contractors should NOT be a part of legal system. EVER.
I was told that Laura Bush has the Contractor Vendor rights to many food service systems in the prison system; that horrified me. She may do what she wants , but I cannot support that type of approach.
We need help from someone who knows this system intimately. Free people please speak up for decency in legal approach.
Tam
Andrew • September 27, 2007 2:34 AM
1) Institutional loaf. Be afraid.
2) Ground glass. Be very afraid.
3) “Look for me in your food.” Terrified yet?
4) A place to sell “Grade D Meat: Fit For Human Consumption.”
5) Don’t forget the heavy starch to dull thought, make it difficult to bulk up, and impair cardiovascular health.
Colossal Squid • September 27, 2007 5:10 AM
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Clive Robinson • September 27, 2007 5:38 AM
Wait till they hear about paper cuts… then no more paper plates etc.
Seriously though, just about any object can be used to inflict quite serious injury on another person even a sock (soak it in water and whip it across somebodies eyes, or put your food in it to give it some weight and use it as a cosh etc).
You cannot remove the risk of objects being used as wepons by knowledgable persons and the one thing offenders in most institutions quite quickly get to be is knowledgable about violence in all sorts of forms.
So the only answer has to be “no contact” between offenders / guards / visitors / any one else. So solitay confinment all around oh and automated (robot) moving of offenders… I can just see the DHS funding aplication for this getting through…
Joseph • September 27, 2007 8:46 AM
@Tam:
“Prisons should be run by a federally controlled system, not by state/local. It is important to remove bias from the system.
And contractors should NOT be a part of legal system. EVER.”
Tam, I say this with the best intentions: you really need to spend some time visiting a prison or talking to the guards and the prisoners at length. I’ve done it and it is very informative. Yes, there are lots of problems with our current prison system. But private contractors and state control of the prison system actually improves them a lot. Capitalism and the free market encourages competition to provide the best food, services, etc. If the federal government provided all the food, trust me, it would be a lot worse. The same goes for state control of the prison system. If you’ve worked with law enforcement, you’d realize that the last thing we want in our prison system is a heavy federal presence.
Just be careful about making blanket statements when you haven’t worked with law enforcement very much.
Colossal Squid • September 27, 2007 9:04 AM
“Capitalism and the free market encourages competition to provide the best food, services, etc.”
Rubbish, it encourages a race to the bottom to provide the cheapest food/service to inflate shareholders’ profits.
In this case government may be the lesser of two evils.
Breniir • September 27, 2007 9:35 AM
Reminds me of being on a Navy ship during my enlistment in the Marines…
Stamped on the side of a box of foodstuffs:
“Grade D meat – for Military or Prison use only”
hfb • September 27, 2007 11:40 AM
“feed them as if they are ill-respected hogs”
Are you kidding? They get better food then we feed our children in public schools.
Find real problems with the world, please.
Alan • September 27, 2007 12:05 PM
This is the wave of the future. After the next Reichtag fire/Terrorist attack, Americans will not be allowed anything sharper than a rubber ball. (And the ball cannot be smaller than 1.5″ due to choking hazard.)
Anonymous • September 27, 2007 12:41 PM
I wonder if they only allow boneless meats?
You could create a pretty good shiv with a sizable hunk of bone, maybe something from a beef rib or any leg bone. Even a chicken drumstick, perhaps.
People have been making weapons from bone for a pretty long time; you can make some pretty decent tools and weapons from it if you have a lot of spare time, and spare time seems like something prisoners would have in abundance.
Joseph • September 27, 2007 1:10 PM
“Americans will not be allowed anything sharper than a rubber ball”
Have you ever slipped and fallen on a ball? Can you imagine the panic if we filled an airport terminal with rubber balls, and everyone was slipping, and the police and medics couldn’t run fast enough to help because of the balls, etc, etc.
Nope. We have to ban rubber balls, too.
Alan • September 27, 2007 3:09 PM
“Have you ever slipped and fallen on a ball? Can you imagine the panic if we filled an airport terminal with rubber balls, and everyone was slipping, and the police and medics couldn’t run fast enough to help because of the balls, etc, etc.”
I think Bruce needs a “Commercial Terror Plot Contest”. Terror in a 30-second spot.
Martin • September 27, 2007 4:18 PM
“Reminds me of being on a Navy ship during my enlistment in the Marines…
“Stamped on the side of a box of foodstuffs:
‘Grade D meat – for Military or Prison use only'”
There is no “Grade D” meat. Only poultry is graded on a letter scale, and that’s A, B, or C. No other meat is graded on a single-letter scale: beef is graded on an eight-level scale with ratings such as Prime, Choice, and Select; veal/calf and lamb have five grades; and pork is not graded at all.
randomwalker • September 28, 2007 8:37 PM
Actually I think the prisons are getting better food than most of the people in that video.
luke • December 21, 2009 6:54 AM
yes while the grading system does not not state this all commercial meat that is graded for sale has already passed inspection as grade a.
it is not a joke that the marines in iraq are fed on a regular basis grade d meats. cooked medium rare its actually pretty tasty.
how do i know ? i have eaten it. and helped cook it. some of it smells a little funny. not the fault of the packer poor storage in route. hence the reason we usually cook it medium well. doubtless there are some that will doubt this post.
consider three things. 1 i have eaten it and im not dead. 2 i was there ( mos0351- line company) 3 i helped our cook a lot
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
John • September 26, 2007 12:34 PM
I bet kabob night is definitely out.