Cheaper.

[Jolly]

The parish has a "pea farm", where inmate labor is used to raise fresh vegetables for the prison kitchens. The parish prison is pretty good sized and follows the Angola model, with different "camps" instead of one building. That costs a tiny bit more, but it's easier to control the population and allows them to segregate based on prisoner behavior.

My wife's uncle runs the farm and he's good at what he does. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, beets, cabbage, snap beans, field peas, sweet corn, okra, cucumbers and tomatoes, just to mention some of the things he grows. His equipment consists of a Kubota tractor, two row equipment and lots of hoes, along with other hand tools. Labor is voluntary, but the guys get a few cents per hour and special privileges...Special privileges meaning the uncle will sometimes but the crew pizza or fast food for lunch. In prison, that's a big deal. So he has his pick of labor. Besides, they're getting some fresh air and being productive.

Imagine his surprise when he was told to cut down on his spring planting this year, because they were contracting out one of the camp kitchens, as a cost cutting measure. Folks, those kitchens are currently being run by a Sheriff's employer in each one, and everything else is inmate labor.

Somebody explain to me how a corporation can cook and feed people cheaper than a kitchen with essentially free labor and very low cost vegetables?

[Deleted]

That's just crazy.

What do you want to bet someone's brother-in-law has a business that needed a boost?

It's a darned shame, and maybe should be brought to the attention of the public.

Related anecdote: The State Hospital up in Elgin, IL, used to produce all its own food, from dairy to meat to veg. The patients did the work under supervision, and it was a grand thing.

Someone got the brainy idea that the residents should not have to work like that (read: Someone had a relative with a business), so they discontinued allowing the patients to do for themselves. Enter drug companies and zombie-fying drugs, and the whole thing went to hell in a handbasket.

[Ozarks Tom]

Jolly, Sounds like it's time to call in some outside auditors and have a look at the Parish commissioner's bank accounts.

[joebill]

Either that or Ramen noodles at 12 cents each, three meals a day......OR, you can eat the noodles for one meal, the flavoring in hot water and call it SOUP for the other meal.

I don't think I could get through VOTEC school today, since the fast food joints stopped putting out ketchup in little packets for making ketchup soup. Now, you have to BUY something to get ketchup!....Greedy corporations have ruined the country for the little guy …..Joe

[DEKE]

Dec 6, 2019 23:22:10 GMT joebill said:

I don't think I could get through VOTEC school today, since the fast food joints stopped putting out ketchup in little packets for making ketchup soup. Now, you have to BUY something to get ketchup!....Greedy corporations have ruined the country for the little guy …..Joe

And that means we need to hear "Warm and Free" by Bobby Bare

[Jolly]

You've heard you can't fight city hall? Well, the sheriff in a Louisiana parish sits at the left hand of God.

If you shoot at the king, you better kill him....

Problem with feeding prisoners bad or insufficient food, is that sooner or later you're going to have trouble. A happy (relatively) prisoner is one who is tired, has a full belly and has some kind of hope.