I am currently an inmate in Santa Rita Jail (SRJ), the County Jail for Alameda County, housed in Housing Unit (HU) 21. The food in Santa Rita Jail is frequently inedible. For example, yesterday the vegetables were old and inedible. They have turned brown and black and become soggy, like when vegetables are forgotten in the fridge and turn into brown mush.
Lately, the tuna fish has smelled bad, and I’m afraid to eat it. I don’t want to get food poisoning. The tuna does not come in original packaging but has been removed from the can and placed into a small plastic cup, like the cups for salad dressing in salad bars. Because the cup is not sealed, and I know these trays are put together days in advance, and often not properly refrigerated, I am always careful to smell the food and if it smells bad, I will not eat it.
For example, yesterday the vegetables were old and inedible. They have turned brown and black and become soggy, like when vegetables are forgotten in the fridge and turn into brown mush. Lately, the tuna fish has smelled bad, and I’m afraid to eat it. I don’t want to get food poisoning.
Another reason the food is inedible, is because it is frequently overheated. One day this past week, we got our dinner really late, so the dinner had been in the oven for over 4 hours. By the time it came out, the rice was so dry and hard, I could not chew it. The meat was brownish black and burnt, and the broccoli was as hard as a popsicle stick. To add insult to injury, under the rice was clearly, old residual food, burnt onto the tray. The burnt stuff was so tough, it would take a chisel to scrape it off. That was a meal where I could hardly eat anything. I estimate that 6 out of 7 dinners are heated for too long.