Interview with Charles, m ray, Leon, Jean, Accountant, Hot attorney, Gene, Lil Will, Cam, big boi, Claire, Walt, Carl, Ed, Devin, Mitch and Ronaldo
JM: How many meals did you get per day? Charles: 3 Breakfast is served about 4am, lunch comes about
noon, dinner is about 5pm. m ray: 3 Leon: 3. Jean: 3 meals. The first meal of the day is at 4am. Lunch is always at
11am, and every day for lunch, all you get is a bologna
sandwich. Every day you get a bologna sandwich, some pasta
salad, and some fruit, and you always get a cup of Kool-Aid.
They give you dinner at 4 in the afternoon - that means you
don't get fed again for 12 hours - way too long. Let me tell you
about the food in Dallas County. We're in one of those counties
or states where it has to be kosher or whatever you want to call
it - everything is soybeans, because you have so many ethnic
races that they don't feed you real meat. None. Now, the guys
would get chicken on Christmas or turkey on Thanksgiving, but
the girls never got it. It makes you sicker than a dog the first
week you're there.
As far as us not getting the good food, I don't know why. You
tell me. Men get preferential treatment at the Dallas County Jail,
and it's always been that way. For commissary, they always go to
the men first. By the time they get to you, there's nothing on the
commissary cart. Accountant: While in Irving there was one hot meal, in
Dallas, there was breakfast at I think 6am, and
it was a sandwich, and an empty cup-you have to
get your water from the toilet hand wash bowl. Hot attorney: 3 Gene: 2. Breakfast doesn't count as a meal. A roll
and coffee is a snack. Lil Will: 3 if you can call it that. Cam: 3..Lunch was always the same..Bologna sandwiches
and whatever sides you got, well you got.. big boi: 3 meals Claire: 3 a day from 430 a.m to 430 p.m Walt: WE had 3 meals a day Carl: there are three meals a day Ed: you got 3 meals a day Devin: We got three decent meals a day. Mitch: The term THREE HOTS and a COT are true. Except
one of those hots is usually a sandwich and not
so hot. Ronaldo: I received 3 meals a day
JM: How would you rate the food? Please give details of why. Charles: Terrible, only thing i would eat is the waffles
for breakfast, gave the rest away. m ray: the nastys sh* ever and u dont get much Leon: The food quality was ok the portions were to small. You stayed
pretty hungry unless you had commissary. Jean: The food is awful so you really should try to get commissary. It
comes every day (it's a lady with a cart). She's got Ramen
noodles and flip flops and soap - all the stuff you might need is
on that cart. You put money on your books, and they give you a
little band that's like a UPC barcode, and they scan it. Don't try
to pull your chip out and put it in someone else's band because
that chip identifies who you are. They'll know you swapped. If
you get caught swapping you'll get in trouble - they check your
band all the time to make sure you haven't tampered with it.
Some girls buy commissary for other people - like some girls
might have gone to the doctor or something, or you might have
a buddy that's on work release, and she might be gone for the
day and she needs commissary and you don't have any money.
So you do it for your friends. You do a lot of shit you wouldn't
think you'd do. You always think there's a way to beat the
system. Accountant: Declined all food/drinks......
No privacy, didn't want to use the restroom in
front of entire staff/inmates. Hot attorney: Barely fit for human consumption. Gene: On a scale of 1 to 10, a 3. Lil Will: 2 on scale to 10 Cam: on a scale of 1 to 10 and 10 being the highest..
3 across the board.. big boi: nasty... Claire: from my experience of the jail food has been that
its not so pleasing,breakfast was always too
light because you had a big window until next
chow.itt's served so early,you pracgticly sleep
walking to get it and eat it.i kept commissary to
fill in the gap,sometimes supplemented for one of
the chows Walt: Breakfast was decent, Lunch was not so good always
turkey bologna and 2 stale pieces of bread, some
days you would get sides like jello and or pea
salad, mac salad, and dinner was usually better
than the other 2 a patty or hot dog or lasagna
with a decent sized side, spinach, peas, corn etc Carl: I would rate the food as very poor and disgusting
and rarely got a hot meal and if it was a hot meal
it was still cold is some places of the meal and was
served by other inmates accomponied by a guard which
mad it hard for me to trust if the food was clean to
eat. Ed: horrable very said in the morning you get a
bisket with saugage sometimes an egg it is very
bad 2 bolingia sandwiches every lunch with some
applesause and for dinner sometimes you get sauce
wit nothing in it the guy next to you has noodles
and meat and your tray just has sauce Devin: The food honestly wasn't that bad but the proportions weren't
that great. They didn't have the best variety because it
seemedlike they recycled tthe same meals every few days.
Breakfast was almost always the same and lunch was always
bologna. Those that had diabetes or hbp had special diet trays. Mitch: On a scale of one to ten I would rate it at a
seven. Soy is so good for you, and NO carbonation
takes a while to get used to but once you do you
feel a lot better. I literally gave up soda after
I was released and I realized soy milk keeps me
from having problems being lactose. Ronaldo: Breakfast was ok. Not really much you can expect
from a jailhouse. Lunch was always the same. Bologne
sandwiches which after a day or two became pretty
boring. First day i found green fugus on my bread
which the guards didnt care about. Dinner was always
ok too. At least we would get them warm.
JM: Did you have any favorite/least favorite meals? Charles: Waffles were ok. m ray: breakfast Leon: Not really. Jean: No - even the commissary selection wasn't very good. Well,
that's not always true - some days it would be good and some
days it wouldn't. Quite truly, I would do commissary once a
month, but some days you just want a Coca Cola - you just want
one - and the commissary cart would get there, and she's got no
soft drinks. You get tired of drinking Kool Aid - besides that,
Kool Aid causes yeast infections, and then you can't see the
doctor. So lots of time you eat ramen noodles like it's nobody's
business when you have commissary money. You damn sure
make sure you get as many ramens as you can. You're gonna
get tired of eating that bologna at lunch. Accountant: N/A
Didn't Eat.. Hot attorney: There was one hot burrito meal that was ok. Cam: lunch was always the least favorite..and chicken
fried steak was my favorite.. big boi: chicken fried stake Claire: favorite mac salad,because it was the closest
thing to real food-worse biscuit and gravy
because it looked like what they call it-
shitonshingle Walt: I do not like fish but we only had it twice and
the best was the Salisbury steak patty's and tots.
Dinner always came with a pack of cookies or
ginger snaps Carl: There are no favorite meals, they were very hard to
eat if I ate them at all, alot of times i would skip
meals because of how disgusting they are Ed: bolinga every lunch that was sometimes green and
smelt bad but the guards don't care you have to
eat or you will starve Devin: My least favorite meal had to be lunch because it was the
same every day. I'd have to say that my favorite was breakfast
because we ate dinner around 4:30 and we were starving by
morning. Mitch: The soy meat called brake pads were my favorite
because they filled you but not made you feel
overly stuffed. Ronaldo: I would have to say my favorite meal was probably
the sausages. My least favorite meal would have to
be the ones they call "Dirty Diapers"
JM: Were there any other snacks offered outside of meals? What was commissary like and how expensive was it? Charles: I lived off commissary. I ate Raman noodles,
summer sausage, chips, candy bars and such. m ray: if you have money Leon: Only commissary if you have money on your account. Jean: Just the commissary. The cool thing about it is, the black girls
always want that chocolate candy bar or cookies or something, so
when I'd trade, I'd always trade it for something that would be
more substantial like ramen noodles - well, mostly ramen noodles.
I'd never trade my crap because I liked my crap! I bought it for me! Accountant: No Hot attorney: No. Lil Will: make store you need it. Cam: Commissary only.. Claire: on the lunch and dinner trays they served
cookies,jello,pudding in individual packaging
commissary is ok but expensive seem like the
[rices go up rapidily,plus I noticed county is
higher than tdc,but it's a must to have . Walt: The commissary was good, I didn't have ny wallet
on me when i was arrested but I would have been
happy with what the selection was. The items were
over priced but the were reasonable. Carl: Yes there are other snacks offered outside of the
meals and I had to have money on my books or
accounts from family and friends who put the money
on my account to be able to purchase the snacks. The
price is comparable to gas station snack prices. Ed: very expensive 6 dollars for a bag of 3 ounce
coffee and like 1.25 for a soup that only cost 15
cents in the free world it is very expensive and
the other inmates steal your stuff Devin: We sometimes got cookies and jello and things like that but it
was basic like ginger cookies or sugar free jello. Commissary
was very expensive but they usually had a nice variety of
things to choose from. Mitch: Not really. The general in-mates received those
three meals. However, I am diabetic and required
extra sandwiches, crackers, juice for insulin
protection. Commissary came every day and yes it
was expensive. I spent on average about 150.00 a
week on commissary. Not for myself but for others
i.e. protection, friends, politics, etc. Ronaldo: Yes there were other snacks offered outside of
meals. They would all come from the commissary which
I would have to say was quite expensive. Sometimes
they were ten times more expensive than their retail
value.