The Heart-Healthy Diet is a relatively recent gimmick of the Pennsylvania Department of Imprisonment. The ploy is that starving prisoners is good for their hearts. Of course, as with everything from the prison system, it's a lie. Everyone recognizes that the Heart-Healthy Diet is really a scheme to save a few pennies by shortchanging the prisoners' meals. The money goes to benefit the staff. An examination of the prison budget proves that the cost of the prisons is not the prisoners, but the bloated staff. For every dollar that benefits prisoners, $82 benefit the staff. But play along with the fable for a moment. Our cofounder wrote to the Department of Imprisonment (falsely called the Department of Corrections) asking how much prisoner health had been helped by the Heart-Healthy Diet. She wanted to know if there was a reduction in heart problems and if health had improved with a corresponding reduction in healthcare costs. Of course there was no answer. The prison system can't bring itself to tell the truth. It's out of their character. By serving tasteless slop the prison system can get away with paying about 95 cents a day to feed a grown man! Most of the slop goes uneaten and is thrown away, so really, the money is wasted. To feed themselves, the men beg money from their impoverished families. It's used to buy junk food at the prison commissary. If anything is not "heart-healthy," it's salty junk foods. But, the prison system makes an 18% profit on commissary sales. By starving the men in the messhall, the prisons rake in millions in the commissaries. Who do you think benefits from those millions? the staff. For the prisoners, the true effect of the Heart-Healthy Diet is bad health. But that's okay with the prison system. It's got another gimmick. The system charges the prisoner for getting sick! Again the prisoner must beg. Again his impoverished family must help to support him. It's obvious that an important aim of the Pennsylvania Department of Imprisonment is to drain money from prisoners' families. The prison system benefits no one but itself. The Heart-Healthy Diet has not reduced medical problems. It's caused medical problems. For the Department of Imprisonment, there's another headache. The guards eat at the prisons. One of the many perks lavished on the overpaid staff is free meals. The guards aren't happy with slop so special meals are usually prepared for them. The special foods are apparently not "heart-healthy." All of which simply proves the duplicity of the health claims. To reduce the whining, guards are given much larger portions and extra treats. The Heart-Healthy Diet doesn't work any better than prison works. It make the men irritable, dissatisfied and combative, adding to the violence and unrest in the prisons. That's the genus of prison management. For more information, albeit not very trustworthy, about prison healthcare, you may want to contact the present flunky in charge: Alan Fogel, Director, Bureau of Health Care Services 2520 Lisburn Road Camp Hill, PA 17001-0598 717-731-7793 Rebecca's Bargain Antiques Collectible Vintage Photos Fine Prints - Old Maps Sheet Music - Old Books Elegant Antiques and Collectibles "The world shall hear of me again" Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu, 1932 You are welcome to use or republish any of our material. Please give www.prisoners.com credit as the source. Return to the Prison Medical Care 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.