A lot of tax money is spent for food in Pennsylvania's prisons, almost $75,000 a day. About half of that food goes to the prisoners. The other half goes to the staff. From the terribly regressive state prison at Frackville in Eastcentral Pennsylvania, we've discovered that a lot of food is stolen from the prison kitchen. At Frackville, the prisoners steal somewhere around $100 worth of food each year. During the same year period, the staff steals in excess of $117,000.00 worth of food! Indeed, some members of the staff do a lot of stealing. One Frackville guard sergeant, for example was seen emerging from the prisoners' commissary with a stolen thermal drinking cup. About $800.00 a year is stolen by the staff (mostly guards) from the inmate commissary. A strange hypocrisy exists at the Frackville prison. Prisoners are severely punished for the tiny amounts they take from the kitchen, while the staff has been provided with a systematic looting of treats for themselves. Many foods are bought especially for the staff. Pennsylvania law and Department of Imprisonment policy provide that the staff is given meals each day at taxpayer expense, but they are entitled only to the same foods served to the prisoners most of which is pure crap. The reality at Frackville and at other prisons is VERY different. We've been told about several cases of prisoners at Frackville being issued so-called "class-one" misconducts and punished for stealing food. One took a state-manufactured hamburger-like patty (value 32 cents). Another took a few packets of sugar (value 18 cents). The third took an egg (value 12 cents). During the same period of time the staff stole in excess of $11,000.00 worth of food! The staff wasn't punished. We recently acquired some of the bills from the Frackville prison messhall. The prison won't produce all the bills. As a result, we can't be certain of all our findings. We're certain that huge amounts of food are bought solely for the staff contrary to the law. Below is what we've worked out so far. Some of our figures and conclusions may be less than exact, but, given the information provided to us, we're pretty close. Foods Bought For The Staff with Tax Money These are foods NOT served to prisoners and bought contrary to the law; In other words, stolen! Commodity Taken By Staff Value Taken Per Day On Average Cheddar cheese (block) $33.37 Chicken breast (premium) $40.00 Clam soup (base) $9.87 Coffee (special deluxe) $24.72 Grapefruit drink (base) $11.00 Hamburgers (special, not Corrections made) 1 $62.00 Horseradish sauce $2.74 Jelly, grape (non-poisonous)2 $20.33 Milk, skim $13.00 Mushrooms, medium $3.00 Oyster crackers $11.77 Parmesan cheese, grated $11.11 Tomatoes3 $10.66 Tomatoes, cherry $1.50 Turkey breast (smoked gourmet) $24.30 Turkey thighs4 $25.13 Turkey pastrami $15.26 Worcestershire sauce $3.00 AVERAGE TOTAL PER DAY $322.76 Total Value Stolen Each Year $ 117,500.00 Footnotes 1The hamburgers fed to prisoners are made by the Department of Imprisonment at the Camp Hill prison. These patties came from Feesers Food Distributors in Harrisburg. 2The jelly fed to prisoners is a poisonous substance made before the year 2000 by the now defunct Stickney and Poor. 3Tomatoes are occasionally also served in very limited quantities to prisoners. The figure used here deducted the amount estimated for prisoners' use. 4We have no idea how "turkey thighs" are used for/by the staff, but large amounts are bought from Karetas Foods, Inc. in Reading for 94.25 cents a pound. For comparison purposes, remember that prisoners' meals cost, on average, about 35 cents each! Due to bad management and absurd procedures about half of the food prepared in the prison kitchens is discarded; simply thrown into the garbage. Excess food is trashed instead of being served to the prisoners. The foods that the prisoners favor are strictly rationed. "Tater-Tots" for example, bought as, "potato puffs" for 40 cents per pound from Karetas Foods, Inc., are doled out 8 at a time, not because of their cost, but in order to deprive the prisoners of the treat. On one recent occasion 7 large pans of the puffs (about 40 pounds) were discarded. At the Frackville prison and at many others, each prisoner is give one ration of each thing on the menu, even things few persons want or eat. As a result, a great deal is wasted. Grapefruits, for example are eaten by few prisoners. They are purchased for about 35 cents each from Bedway Products in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania. To give a ration to each prisoner each time they are served (about once a month) costs about $185. At least $150 worth is discarded. Why not save the taxpayers that money. Would competent management and sane procedures be too much for the prisons. Many of the food purchases are simply foolish. We haven't found any kickbacks in messhall purchasing (the commissary is a whole different ball of wax), but is it wise, for example, to buy apples from New Zealand while they are being harvested a few miles away? We don't much care what the taxpayers give to the prison staff. We expect the prisoners to be treated equally well. We expect the prison staff to obey the law...it's a lot to expect. At the Frackville prison it's too much to expect. "If you don't crack the nut, you can't eat the meat" Persian proverb You are welcome to use or republish any of our material. Please give www.prisoners.com credit as the source. Return to the Public Enemies Menu Return to the Frackville Prison Menu Return to the Main Menu Go to our site's Search Engine Send us Your Comments or Input.