Jail food

By Tiffiny Woo
Published: May 30, 2008

While some Alabama counties have found a way to turn a profit off of an inmate’s food allowance of $1.75 per day, Barbour County Sheriff Leroy Upshaw says inflation has left little room in his budget for extras.
At the end of each month, the department sends a report to the state listing the number of inmates that were in the jail each day. The state then reimburses him $1.75 per inmate for each day they were incarcerated.
Under the state’s system, Upshaw is personally responsible for making sure the inmates are fed the required 1,200 calories-per-day minimum.
“Some would say that they are prisoners and a piece of bread and a glass of water is all they deserve,” said Upshaw.
“They are prisoners, but they still need to be treated as human beings.”
Though many inmates receive more food in prison than they did on the streets, he doesn’t feel that’s any reason to skimp on meals. “Twelve hundred calories isn’t much,” he said. “We can’t be expected to feed the same amount of inmates for the same price we did ten years ago.”
In fact, back when the $1.75 system was set up in 1927, sheriffs and county office holders could actually make a profit on that amount and keep what they didn’t use for themselves.
Though a recent article by the Associated Press cited many Alabama sheriffs could still turn a profit on $1.75 per day, Upshaw says it’s not even sufficient to feed an inmate properly by his standards.
“We used to be able to give them a meat in the morning and a meat in the evening,” said Upshaw. “But the way it is now, they get meat once a day. We like to give them eggs in the morning to provide another source of protein as well.”
As with many sheriffs under the state’s system, Upshaw has a separate, personal account set up in which all the funds for food are deposited, but if the balance is ever insufficient to cover the cost of food, the difference comes out of his pocket.
The jail had an estimated 115 inmates each day for the month of May. At $1.75 each day, the state would reimburse Upshaw approximately $6,000 to feed 115 people for a month.
A purchase order from Kelly Food Service showed the jail spending approximately $4,500 in food for the month, and this amount does not include extras that the jail purchases from other companies or from Sam’s Club to save money.
“We spent about $800 on bread this month and another $600 at Sam’s for spices and things like that,” said Upshaw.
Any money left over at the end of the month remains in the account as part of a reserve budget for inmate meals, says Upshaw.
“We’re slowly depleting our reserves, never more than $500 away from me having to dip into my own pocket to feed these prisoners.”