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City's Inmates Get Healthier, Blander Food
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 19, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 19, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The Department of Correction has begun serving New York City’s 14,000 prisoners a healthier diet of fruit, fiber-rich cereals, skim milk and whole wheat bread. Sugar-sweetened beverages are forbidden, and soon unsweetened muffins will replace sweetened ones. Fried foods have been off the menu for years, and has city has drastically reduced the amount of red meat served, placing a greater emphasis on chicken, fish and tofu.
“We have no choice but to eat what they give us. It's bland - so I guess that's healthy,” Rikers inmate Christopher Alberici told the Daily News. Commissioner Martin Horn says the health food isn’t costing the city more; it’s still $2.50 per inmate per day. And Horn predicts the diet will save money in the long run because healthier inmates will be less prone to strokes, heart attacks or diabetic shock on the city's watch.
Of course, Horn isn’t factoring in the cost of putting down prison riots after the umpteenth tofu loaf sends Rikers Island into a rage. And the Daily News gets a great perspective from hardboiled Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who’s famous for feeding dogs better than inmates at his Maricopa County jail. Arpaio thinks $2.50 a day is pure decadence; he spends 40 cents a day per prisoner for food and declares, “You should never eat better in jail than you do on the outside.”
Tagged
arizona
city
daily news
department of correction
Healthier
menu
new york
new york city
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Prison Food
Rikers Island
the city
The Department
tofu
Whole Wheat
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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