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Meals

Interview with Shawanda Miller, Jeremy, Chuck, Charles and Josh

JM: How many meals did you get per day?
Shawanda Miller: 3 meals a day. Before they would give breakfast and 2 hot meals. Now they only give 1 hot meal per day usually lunch. Supper generally brown bag - sandwich, chips, fruit, milk.
Jeremy: I got a sandwich at intake at 5pm...the next meal was at breakfast at 7am!! Then lunch around 1pm...i was released after that....
Chuck: 3 meals a day. For breakfast you get one of those small things of cereal and carton of milk, an oragne. Your lunch is biggest meal, a full meal and dinner is bologna sandwich.
Charles: 3 meals Monday- Friday 2 meals on sat and sun
Josh: Monday through Friday you get three meals. Weekends and holidays you only get fed twice.

JM: How would you rate the food? Please give details of why.
Shawanda Miller: Not the best but you get used to it. Alot of inmates rely on there canteen because you get small portions. When I was housed in Goodhue county because of Dakota not housing females there, Goodhue county food was alot better. The turkey sandwich's were the best, the salami sandwich's were the worst in my opinion.
Jeremy: Terrible! I couldnt believe it!
Chuck: Pretty bad. It was contracted out to lowest bidder that can be miserable.
Charles: The food was some of the worst county jail food I've ever eaten and hope to never have to eat there again. Every night I was given a cold cut sandwich....every night!!! I was there for 180 nights. I actually ate a nasty cold cut sandwich for 6 months every night.
Josh: The food sucked. The only meat they serve is turkey. Breakfast Monday through Friday is always the same cornbread and cereal. The lunch is always terrible. Dinner really sucks bologna sandwich with a 21gram bag of pretzels and two little duplex cookies. A small thing of juice and a carton of milk. I'm sure elementary students get a bigger lunch than an inmate.

JM: Did you have any favorite/least favorite meals?
Shawanda Miller: Yes favorite - turkey sandwich's - least salami/bologna sandwich's. Breakfast when they had fried potatoes were good. Hotdogs weren't the best nor was the scallop/ham dish.
Chuck: No such thing as a favorite. Everything was bland and over salted.
Charles: No favorites at Dakota county. Almost ALL of there meals tasted like shit and were poorly prepared. Portions also were very small. My 3yr old eats more than what they give an adult.
Josh: My least favorite meal was the "brunch" on Sunday morning. Biscuits and the gravy of one thousand turkeys. Id always force every meal down though.. its better than going hungry.

JM: Were there any other snacks offered outside of meals? What was commissary like and how expensive was it?
Shawanda Miller: Yes through canteen which you could order twice a week. Coffee, hot chocolate, pkged fruit drinks, candy bars, mint's, salami/slim jim sticks basically what I ordered. Now they have soda too, but when I was there they didn't offer soda.
Jeremy: There was a soda vending machine and a vending machines with candie, soups, chips etc..etc..i had money on my books so i purchased a soda and some candy! But they are expensive! I think i paid $1.50 for a can of Pepsi.
Chuck: You get canteen once a week. They had pop machines an candy machines in every unit. Canteen is the currency in the jail.
Charles: There were vending machines and you could order commissary weekly. The prices were jacked up pretty high so the number one seller was ramen noodle individual packet for 90 cents.(You can buy 9 of them at the store for that price)
Josh: If you want any extra food you have to buy it. There is a vending machine in the common area tempting you all day. Filled with $1.35 candy bars, $.95 ramen noodles, $1.60 honey buns and all kinds of over priced goodies.

Read about inmate access to medication in the Dakota County Jail