I am currently an inmate in Santa Rita Jail (SRJ), the County Jail for Alameda County, housed in Housing Unit (HU) 3, Pod B. I am a pretrial detainee.
On January 15, 2020, I was one of three inmates that found rodent droppings in my breakfast tray (the cold tray). I made sure Deputy Fry documented this with his body camera, and he even agreed, “That looks like rat poop.” Another deputy later on said, “Well there’s going to be rats wherever there is food.” I submitted two grievances on this issue, yet no one ever followed up with me after I submitted these grievances. In fact, the jail simply responded by “Denying” my grievances, claiming that the deputy was “unable to identify the substance as rat droppings.” This was very frustrating because I had even requested that the deputies take the droppings and get them tested to be sure they were rodent droppings, but they refused to do this. That incident really freaked me out and made me more scared to eat the food at the jail. It made me feel like I might accidentally swallow more rat feces if I don’t notice it in time. We prisoners shouldn’t have to sift through our food every day at 5AM (when breakfast is served) just to make sure we aren’t eating rat poop.
I made sure Deputy Fry documented this with his body camera, and he even agreed, “That looks like rat poop.” Another deputy later on said, “Well there’s going to be rats wherever there is food.” I submitted two grievances on this issue, yet no one ever followed up with me after I submitted these grievances. In fact, the jail simply responded by “Denying” my grievances, claiming that the deputy was “unable to identify the substance as rat droppings.”
Shortly after I found the rat poop in my food, I found another foreign object in my oatmeal. I came across a thick, hard, purple-ish plastic chunk. It looked like a corner piece (same shape and color) that had broken off of one of the purple trays. After these two incidents of finding foreign objects in my food, I became even more scared to eat any of the jail food without really fishing through it first.
Usually, around four to five times a week, I will either get to the bottom of my plastic food tray and see leftover remnants from previous meals or I’ll taste something inconsistent with the current meal (for example, beans in the oatmeal). Tray sanitation (because trays aren’t getting cleaned and have leftover food) is a regular problem with the plastic trays. Lately though, for the past two weeks, we have been receiving more disposable paper trays instead of the usual plastic trays (around 75% of the recent trays have been disposable) so the tray sanitation issue isn’t as bad.
All food trays are supposed to come wrapped in plastic wrap. Because I am a pod worker and help distribute the food trays, I would say that every day, there are always at least a few food trays that have damaged plastic wraps or do not have a fully sealed plastic on top of them.
As a pod worker, when I hand out the trays, I also notice lots of inconsistencies. For example, one tray might be missing a peanut butter or a jelly or a slice of bread and the next will not be missing anything.
The food at this jail tastes incredibly bad and is often spoiled and inedible…..Some of these prisoners may just be throwing the food out because of how terribly bland and repetitive it us, but a lot of us are also afraid to eat the beans or the oatmeal because too often, someone has found contamination like the rat feces or a foreign object, or something unsanitary in the beans and oatmeal and therefore many of the guys refuse to eat the beans or oatmeal.
The food at this jail tastes incredibly bad and is often spoiled and inedible. The small salad we often receive for dinner is brown or spoiled 60-70% of the time, so I don’t eat it. Around 80-85% of the time, we receive beans for dinner along with some sort of “meat” item (a hot dog or chicken patty or unidentifiable “mystery patty”). Looking at the garbage can after a meal, I would say about 80% of the beans are thrown away. I would say around 70% of all jail food is thrown out. Some of these prisoners may just be throwing the food out because of how terribly bland and repetitive it us, but a lot of us are also afraid to eat the beans or the oatmeal because too often, someone has found contamination like the rat feces or a foreign object, or something unsanitary in the beans and oatmeal and therefore many of the guys refuse to eat the beans or oatmeal.
Especially now that we are getting our food on disposable trays, I see many unopened or barely touched trays going straight into the trash can. This speaks to the food’s safety issues and terrible quality because we are so hungry all the time – we wouldn’t just throw anything out without it being truly disgusting or threatening to our health. The other reason food is thrown away is because most of the food is really just inedible.
Especially now that we are getting our food on disposable trays, I see many unopened or barely touched trays going straight into the trash can. This speaks to the food’s safety issues and terrible quality because we are so hungry all the time – we wouldn’t just throw anything out without it being truly disgusting or threatening to our health.
I am often hungry. I have been here for around two and a half years, and in that time I have lost 18 pounds (from 198 to 180 pounds).. I have spent well over $20,000 on canteen (and at least $30,000 total if you count phone bills and other jail costs). Many have spent much more than that. Myself and my family cannot afford to keep paying these expensive commissary prices for me to get extra food at the store. So, now, I’m usually only able to get a few commissary items around once a month. The expensive commissary prices at this jail frustrated me even more when I found out through the San Francisco jail website that the San Francisco jail commissary prices are on average around half the price (or less) of the Santa Rita Jail commissary prices for the exact same items. If the meals here were more edible here at the jail, I would definitely eat all of my food, all three meals of the day. I have also experienced a lack of energy since coming here, which I think the food situation really contributes to.
It seems to be a conflict of interest to have the jail food be so terrible and inedible with the high commissary prices that makes money for the jail. It makes sense for the jail to serve unsafe and gross food because it forces most folks to go buy commissary, leading to huge profit margins for the jail. I just want safe, unspoiled and edible food to eat.