![]() ![]() Weeks after The Marshall Project and Hearst Newspapers published their joint investigation in May 2020, the prison system’s deputy director for food responded by ordering kitchen staff to do better. When COVID-19 hit, dozens of prisons locked down for months - and their residents began contacting the media with proof of the worsening conditions. Prisoners report that there’s rarely a fresh vegetable in sight, the peanut butter is sometimes watered down with cooking oil, and the portions are paltry. But what actually arrives in the cell door is not always identifiable and sometimes includes odd combinations, such as a single hot dog with no bun, a tortilla, a cup of mush and a raw potato. In theory, the johnnies include a bland breakfast - something like boiled eggs, dry cereal and raisins - while lunch and dinner are usually two sandwiches each, sometimes with a side of prunes or corn bread. Bagged lunches known as “johnny sacks” replace cafeteria meals. Whenever a Texas prison goes on lockdown - whether it’s because of an escape, a contraband search or a pandemic - the mess halls close and prisoners are confined to their bunks and cells. ![]() That meant replacing hot dog and hamburger buns with white bread, switching to powdered milk from liquid, and feeding people only twice a day on the weekends at some facilities.Īs the regular mess hall fare got worse, so did the lockdown meals. Texas prison food has been poor since at least 2011, when officials dealt with a budget shortfall by chopping $2.8 million out of the money set aside for feeding prisoners. “But I’d like to just see.” A History of Bad Fare “The food is so disgusting, I don’t know how much improvement they can make,” she said. Before going into policy work, Luna served time in Texas prisons, sometimes living on the cold bagged meals for weeks at a time. “I’m really happy that TDCJ is actually looking into this and making an effort to move forward on a different path,” said Maggie Luna, policy analyst at the Texas Center for Justice & Equity, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Hernandez said it’s not clear when the program will expand across the state.Īdvocates were cautiously optimistic about the plan. That effort will start with a pilot program to provide warm lockdown meals this spring at the Wallace and Ware units in West Texas, and at Stringfellow near Houston. To do that, Hernandez said, the agency will partner with the prison system’s in-house school district to “develop new Career and Technical Education courses in culinary arts that teach students about creating and distributing these types of meals.” “One of Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s goals for 2030 is to replace sack meals with nutritious, shelf-stable meals,” said Amanda Hernandez, the prison system spokesperson. ![]() Now, though, the agency is making plans for more permanent improvements by starting a new culinary training program, in hopes of doing away with cold meals altogether. Afterward, the food improved in some prisons - but only for a short time, prisoners reported. Though lockdown meals have generated complaints for years, the public didn’t get a look at how awful they really were until 2020, when The Marshall Project and Hearst Newspapers published images of them captured with contraband phones. ![]() This article was published in partnership with The Houston Chronicle. ![]()
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