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Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009

Kitchen staff at Houston jail keeps meals coming, costs down

PERRY — Most jail administrators such as Houston County sheriff’s Maj. Charles Holt are accustomed to inmate criticism of accommodations.

But a common complaint Holt says he hears from inmates of the Houston County jail upon their release from custody may actually be a compliment in disguise.

“His Levi’s didn’t fit,” Holt said an inmate told him last week after trading his jail jumpsuit for plain clothes prior to release from the 506-bed facility. “Most leave here a little heavier and in better health.”

The jail administrator said he suspects the reason for that is the meals are nutritious, the inmates eat on a regular schedule and they have no choice but to rest while incarcerated.

But most of all, the food tastes good, Holt said.

“We eat the same food the inmates do,” said Holt, noting a few exceptions of added variety, including the offering of a salad bar and cold cuts from time to time to jail staff.

Much of the credit goes to ABL Management Inc., a private company based in Baton Rouge, La., which the sheriff’s office contracts with for food service, and its employees that manage the service for the local jail and its inmate work force.

Hazel Fairfax, of Perry, the kitchen supervisor at the jail, is one of those employees.

For the past 11 years, the 51-year-old Fairfax has arrived at the jail at 3 a.m. every weekday to start preparations to feed breakfast to a daily population of more than 500 inmates.

She’s known for adding her own touch — a little of this or a little of that — to enhance the food’s flavor.

Her food service experience came from “no more than cooking at home” for a large family, including her parents, siblings and her own four children.

But her life experience also came into play. She pressed pants for 17 years at the former Lanier Clothing in Unadilla, worked for a couple of years on the assembly line at Tyson Foods in Vienna and worked for a year at a dry cleaner’s before it went out of business.

“My Mom and Dad always told me just get a job and do the best you can do in the job,” she said.

And that’s what she said she tries to instill in the 12 to 15 trustees of the jail assigned to the kitchen. Trustees are minimum-security inmates jailed for non-violent crimes such as theft, bad checks, driving under the influence and other traffic offenses, Holt said. Their good behavior in jail earns them the privilege to serve as trustees.

Fairfax said she likes to talk with the inmates about God and prayer and encourages them to do their jobs in the kitchen just as if they were employed outside of jail. She hopes that what they learn in the jail kitchen will transfer to solid productive jobs when their sentences are completed.

After Fairfax arrives, she sets the large kitchen in motion — gathering the day’s supplies, turning on the appliances and then putting the trustees to work at 4 a.m.

She shows trustees what’s expected the first day she works with them and she then expects each to handle the work after that.

On a visit last week, inmates were preparing sack lunches for other trustees assigned to outside detail along public rights of way and public grounds.

For breakfast Wednesday, she and her kitchen staff of inmates had exhausted 40 pounds of oatmeal, 3 cases of liquid eggs, 7 cases of turkey sausage, 2 50-pound bags of biscuit mix and 10 crates of milk.

All of that for $1.10 per meal, which is pretty good price, although it does add up, Holt said. Of the jail’s annual $10 million budget, about $600,000 pays for meals for inmates and staff, he said.

And this area of the budget hasn’t been immune to today’s economic climate, Holt said. The cost went up 3 cents a meal in July when the consumer price index rose by 3.1 percent, he said.

As for Fairfax, about the only aspect of the job she said she doesn’t like is “cleanup.”

Once cleanup is complete, though, it’s on to the next task: lunch. On the menu for the day were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, vanilla pudding and juice. Dinner included turkey-and-macaroni casserole, a salad, garlic bread, cake and tea.

Fairfax’s day is done after the preparation for lunch. Another ABL worker, Connie Swafford, takes over to serve lunch and oversee dinner preparation. Inmates receive three square meals a day, except for weekends when only breakfast and dinner are served. Trustees deliver the meals to inmate pods.

Jennifer Manley, ABL food service director, supervises the overall jail feeding program, including working with vendors.

Manley also keeps up with food safety, watchful for public health alerts such as salmonella poisoning among crackers, cookies and food items containing peanut butter and peanut paste manufactured by Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America.

Peanut butter and peanut paste made at its Blakely plant recently was recalled by the company. Peanut butter used at the jail was not included in the nationwide recall and was served Wednesday without any problems, Manley said. However, as a precaution, with the list of affected foods expanding, the decision was made Friday to no longer serve it until the peanut butter issue is resolved, she said.

Also, a sample plate of each meal is kept refrigerated for three days in case any inmate becomes ill, part of a routine, standard measure in the food service industry, she said.

Manley came to work for ABL at the jail after 20 years in the food service industry in nursing homes. She said there’s really not much difference in the food service among jails and nursing homes — except for the obvious staff of inmates who are under the watchful eye of a jail deputy at all times.

Also, the cold and dry food pantries always are locked up at the jail, as are the knives used to cut chicken or slice onions. The knives are locked in a wall case behind a locked door of a dry pantry. Each knife must be signed out on a paper sheet by Fairfax or another ABL worker with the inmate’s name. When the knife is in use by an inmate, it is attached to a cord much like a bicycle lock and locked-down to the counter where the inmate is working, then cleaned and locked back up.

Fairfax said she’s never been threatened or harmed by any of the countless inmates she’s worked with over the years and she’s never been afraid to work with them.

“I treat them with respect and they treat me with respect,” Fairfax said. “Come in and do your job, and we’ll get along just fine.”

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 923-3109, extension 243.