SATELLITE FEEDING AT THE ISCC - A BETTER WAY TO SECURITY AND SOCIAL DISTANCING
With nearly 3,000 meals per day being served in the ISCC inmate dining room (chow hall) every day, hundreds of general population (G.P.) prisoners and several staff stand and sit just inches from each other, from 30 to 60 minutes per day, arriving from and dispersing to various units in the facility twice daily. There is no more dangerous place in the institution not only from physical assaults, the passing of contraband from unit to unit and conspiratorial plans being hatched and discussed, but from the transmission of contagions which are then spread throughout the institution and beyond. The obvious and most effective remedy to this situation is satellite feeding.
Satellite feeding, or feeding prisoners in their units, is already being done with G.P. lunches served in plastic bags on the unit every weekday (lunch is served with the breakfast meal on the weekends - miss breakfast, you get no lunch either). All G.P. meals are currently being served in H block (formerly the PIE building) where food arrives from the main kitchen on carts and is spooned out from large pans to individual portions by inmate food service workers into plastic trays, trays which are the same as used in the main G.P. chow hall. These plastic trays are reasonably well maintained, washed and are appropriate for the function they serve, but that is not the case throughout the prison.
In G block (formerly, DEF), close custody and protective custody prisoners housed in D block are fed in their cells on small plastic or silicone trays. These trays are shuttled to the units from the main kitchen on carts which are designed to keep hot food hot on one side of the cart, and cold food cold on the other. These trays are an abomination.
First, these trays retain food odors that no amount of washing can remove. Second, food service inmates simply put food in the trays which are not completely washed and rinsed of old food, and third, the size of the trays do not allow the allotted portion of food to be placed inside. Prisoners write on the trays, inside and out and on the lids. The plastic gets chewed up in the dishwasher, leaving rough and sharp edges, and are even sometimes melted through by the heating elements in the food shuttle carts. Food service could just as easily use the same model to serve food in the close custody and P.C. units as would be used with satellite feeding the G.P. units, except that the trays would be handed through the service ports in the doors for the prisoners to eat in their cells (as is already being done with the silicone trays).
Each G.P. unit at the ISCC has enough tables within each tier to accommodate the seating of the majority (but not all) of the population on that tier. Most prisoners however, if fed on the tier, would elect to eat at the table within their cell, or in their living area. By using (rolling) steam tables, the food could be moved from tier to tier on a unit, and from unit to unit, and served in the very same manner as is currently done in the main kitchen/chow hall, from the large stainless steel pans most often seen in steak houses, smorgasbords, buffets and military bases. The same plastic trays and cups currently used in the chow hall could still be used and collected after the meal is over for transport to the kitchen for washing.
Satellite feeding G.P. units in this manner limits the exposure of prisoners not only to violence, contagions and other such issues in the chow hall, it would also reduce the food bill. Serving directly from the steam table would allow prisoners to elect to not be served items they would not eat even if served. Special diets would be easily accomodated, and effectiveness of staff supervision of food distribution and movement of prisoners would be increased tenfold.
Further, were most of the tables removed from the chow hall, that area could be used for other purposes, such as expansion of the kitchen or dishwashing areas, storage, even a classroom to teach prisoners culinary skills which could not only enhance food preparation in the facility, could carry over to a lucrative career upon release.
While food service experts would have to mull over the idea of satellite feeding at the ISCC, it is clear that the current model of feeding prisoners at the facility is not viable/as is or as was. The world has changed with the COVID-19 virus, and so must the thinking throughout the IDOC. Coronavirus today, maybe something even worse tomorrow.
__________________________
Information about the inside - from the inside. Have your family and friends visit or subscribe to the Idaho Prison Blog today at idahoprisonblog.blogspot.com
Questions or Comments? Leave them on this page or contact Dale directly. See the links on the sidebar.
Satellite feeding, or feeding prisoners in their units, is already being done with G.P. lunches served in plastic bags on the unit every weekday (lunch is served with the breakfast meal on the weekends - miss breakfast, you get no lunch either). All G.P. meals are currently being served in H block (formerly the PIE building) where food arrives from the main kitchen on carts and is spooned out from large pans to individual portions by inmate food service workers into plastic trays, trays which are the same as used in the main G.P. chow hall. These plastic trays are reasonably well maintained, washed and are appropriate for the function they serve, but that is not the case throughout the prison.
In G block (formerly, DEF), close custody and protective custody prisoners housed in D block are fed in their cells on small plastic or silicone trays. These trays are shuttled to the units from the main kitchen on carts which are designed to keep hot food hot on one side of the cart, and cold food cold on the other. These trays are an abomination.
First, these trays retain food odors that no amount of washing can remove. Second, food service inmates simply put food in the trays which are not completely washed and rinsed of old food, and third, the size of the trays do not allow the allotted portion of food to be placed inside. Prisoners write on the trays, inside and out and on the lids. The plastic gets chewed up in the dishwasher, leaving rough and sharp edges, and are even sometimes melted through by the heating elements in the food shuttle carts. Food service could just as easily use the same model to serve food in the close custody and P.C. units as would be used with satellite feeding the G.P. units, except that the trays would be handed through the service ports in the doors for the prisoners to eat in their cells (as is already being done with the silicone trays).
Each G.P. unit at the ISCC has enough tables within each tier to accommodate the seating of the majority (but not all) of the population on that tier. Most prisoners however, if fed on the tier, would elect to eat at the table within their cell, or in their living area. By using (rolling) steam tables, the food could be moved from tier to tier on a unit, and from unit to unit, and served in the very same manner as is currently done in the main kitchen/chow hall, from the large stainless steel pans most often seen in steak houses, smorgasbords, buffets and military bases. The same plastic trays and cups currently used in the chow hall could still be used and collected after the meal is over for transport to the kitchen for washing.
Satellite feeding G.P. units in this manner limits the exposure of prisoners not only to violence, contagions and other such issues in the chow hall, it would also reduce the food bill. Serving directly from the steam table would allow prisoners to elect to not be served items they would not eat even if served. Special diets would be easily accomodated, and effectiveness of staff supervision of food distribution and movement of prisoners would be increased tenfold.
Further, were most of the tables removed from the chow hall, that area could be used for other purposes, such as expansion of the kitchen or dishwashing areas, storage, even a classroom to teach prisoners culinary skills which could not only enhance food preparation in the facility, could carry over to a lucrative career upon release.
While food service experts would have to mull over the idea of satellite feeding at the ISCC, it is clear that the current model of feeding prisoners at the facility is not viable/as is or as was. The world has changed with the COVID-19 virus, and so must the thinking throughout the IDOC. Coronavirus today, maybe something even worse tomorrow.
__________________________
Information about the inside - from the inside. Have your family and friends visit or subscribe to the Idaho Prison Blog today at idahoprisonblog.blogspot.com
Questions or Comments? Leave them on this page or contact Dale directly. See the links on the sidebar.