CountyJail.net

        USA  /  Texas  /  Harris County Jail    CountyJail.net has 1,420 interviews from ex-inmates. Share your story
Find Harris County Jail inmates...

Meals

Interview with Julie, Inmate's Sister, Houston, Claire, Jim, Inmate's Mom, Smyth, Ken, Charlene, Greg, GMan, Jamie, Leisha, Toby, Lisa, Consuela, John, Tiffany, Tom, nogboy, Rachel, Ralph, Chris, Sandy, Ginger, Craig and Lesley

JM: How many meals did you get per day?
Julie: 3
Inmate's Sister: 2
Houston: 3
Claire: 3 meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Jim: 3 meals, two hot meas and one bagged which is generally breakfast.
Inmate's Mom: In 34 hours he one balogna sandwich. Dry.
Smyth: Depends on if anyone talked to you on the way to the cafeteria.. if they did you didn't get to eat.
Ken: 3
Charlene: 3
Greg: I crapped more than I eat, 4 craps aday 2 meals a day.
GMan: Not applicable
Jamie: 3
Leisha: 3 AND IT'S LIKE DOG FOOD, THEN BARLEY GIVE YOU ENOUGH TO FEED A CHILD
Toby: 3 meals.
Lisa: 3
Consuela: 2 1/2 thats what I call it. Breakfast was a boiled egg...that says it all
John: 3
Tiffany: 3
Tom: We had 3 meals per day. Since I was a trustee, i was allowed to eat extra while I was on shift.
nogboy: Breakfast at 230 am, Lunch at about 930 am and dinner at 530pm
Rachel: 3
Ralph: Three meals. I only ate the breakfast, and sometimes one other meal.
Chris: i received five meals per day
Sandy: 3 but the food was not enough you were always hungry unless you have money on your books
Ginger: You were served 3 meals a day.
Craig: We got 3 meals and day and if you got commissary then you got to eat what you had for that, as snack foods etc. If you were on a 5000 day calorie diet then you got a brown bag at night with food.
Lesley: three meals per day no snacks

JM: How would you rate the food? Please give details of why.
Julie: on a scale 1-10 i rate it a 0
Inmate's Sister: ok not like mama food "quote" his words
Houston: Fattening.
Claire: Sub-par, mostly. Not fit for human consumption.
Jim: they do the best they can. It's acceptable but then again it's jail food.
Smyth: Below eating out of garbage can.
Ken: Edible, not good at all by free world standards
Charlene: terrible
Greg: negative 10.
GMan: Non-nutritious
Jamie: 0
Leisha: VERY POORLY, IF YOU DON'T HAVE COMMISSARY YOU SCREWED. AND THEY STILL TAKIING ALL YOUR MONEY
Toby: on a scale to 10 a 6
Lisa: Horrible. The eggs didn't always look like eggs. There were a few plates that were not discernible.
Consuela: Like shit...has anyone ever actually ate black beans with a chicken patty before? How about a corn dog smoothered in pinto beans? yeah I didn't think so.
John: Horrible - the only thing you get to eat in the holding cells are ham sandwiches and an oatmeal pie. I took one bite of a sandwich and didn't eat anything else for the 37 hours I was there.
Tiffany: negative 6 billion. I was there nearly 24 hors and got 3 bologna and cheese sandwiches and 3 oatmeal pies.
Tom: Not good compared to free world food, but decent and edible. Commissary food was better and you could at least choose what bad food you wanted.
nogboy: it was edible
Rachel: Horrible
Ralph: The food was horrible! Sometimes it didn't even taste like food! Seriously. There were some things that I would put in my mouth and then spit it out because it was just not food. Breakfast was acceptable because it was packaged food and fruit. Hard to screw that up. But lunch and dinner were so bad, even the smell was sickening. I eventually stopped eating it.
Chris: as far as county jai goes the food really was not all that bad . on a scale of one to ten i would have to rate the food at about an eight we got packaged pastries in the morning with cereal , milk and fruit . at lunch peanut butter or bologna sandwhiches and at dinner i can remember lots of rice alll the time.
Sandy: horrible You really did not know what you were eating sometimes they only way that you were able to get something that was half way decent you had to order as regular food. Things are very expensive there and some times if you borrow you will have to pay back
Ginger: The food was terrible. It was always luke warm, very soggy and if you are not a fan of beans, you may as well forget about eating. The bread was about the only thing on the menu that was good. Everything else was bland and just tasted terrible and greasy.
Craig: Lowest quality this side of being somehow legal. All processed meats have labels with more names than the chemicals that go into McDonald's food. Usually food was cold upon serving, juice watered down, decaf in the morning poorly made, trays weren't even sanitized properly for the longest time, probably still aren't for that matter!
Lesley: poor to terrible under cooked overcooked cold old tasteless scorched loaded in fat and carbs unappealing the same thing over and over and over week after week after week could loss your mind just in the repetitivity no comments no flavor never any ketchup or mayo never saw a piece of red meat

JM: Did you have any favorite/least favorite meals?
Julie: Onl;y thing was spaghetti it was not cold and i was able to digest i lost 5lbs the 6 days i was looked up only ate may be once a day why would thaye serve us moon pies and oatmeal cakes for breakfast
Inmate's Sister: pbj sandwishes
Houston: breakfast, because of the fruit.
Claire: The most decent meal was breakfast, because that was the closest you got to "real" food. You usually get a hard boiled egg, a banana (or an apple or an orange), one of those pre-made cereal bowls, and a carton of milk. I usually just ate the egg and the fruit, and I would trade my cereal and milk for someone else's egg and/or fruit. I'm not much of a cereal fan out in the free world, and I damned sure didn't want cereal with lukewarm milk.
Jim: Chili Dog nite on thursdays
Smyth: They all sucked.
Ken: Breakfast
Charlene: no favorite, they were all horrible
Greg: this was cosure/.
GMan: None
Jamie: 0
Leisha: NO
Toby: fish was my favorite and some grain breakfeast was the least favorite.
Lisa: I am Muslim and couldn't eat pork."Court" Sandwiches were always ham sandwiches.
Consuela: Chicken leg quarter served only on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Or in less the jail is trying to show off for inspectors.
Tom: Corn dogs and chicken patties were my favorite they served. Ramen "pizza" made from commissary was my favorite of all.
Rachel: Breakfast was ok, usually a biscuit.
Ralph: I liked the boiled eggs in the morning, seasoned with the flavor packet from the soups. And the cereal. The chicken patty was okay. There was one meal that everybody called 'fear factor' because it looked like mixed up bugs and guts!
Chris: my most favorite thing to eat was the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and my least favorite meal was the beans and rice.
Sandy: nothing in the jail I wanted to eat It was horrible I was there for thanksgiving and the food was horrible could not wait to get regular food
Ginger: Least favorite meal was hot dogs and beans because I hate both of them. I guess if I had to pick a favorite, it would be breakfast because it had fruit and cereal.
Craig: My favorite meals were anything with chicken and Bread. They had no pizza and that would have been the most favorite. The worst meals were any meals with Beans in them etc. There was so many bad ones I can't remember them all now.
Lesley: favorite was probably breakfast when we would get sweet cereal and a banana least when we would get the undercooked beans

JM: Were there any other snacks offered outside of meals? What was commissary like and how expensive was it?
Julie: no only what u could save
Inmate's Sister: no unless you had money on books
Houston: Comissary
Claire: Yes, there was a commissary, and it was okay, as those things go. You basically get a list of things that can be purchased (usually on Monday) and check off the items that you want. There is a separate sheet showing how much money you had in your account. You turn in the completed form, and your commissary would be delivered to you on Wednesday. The commissary inventory was pretty good; plenty of Ramen noodles, queso in a can, Little Debbie snacks, soda, tuna, potato chips; other stuff, too, but those were my staples. The Little Debbies were mostly for barter in case one of the other inmates had something that I wanted.
Jim: no
Smyth: If you had money otherwise no.
Ken: Generally not, you could purchase goods from the commesary once a week. They offered plenty of food and snacks, often better quality than the food that was served.
Charlene: no
Greg: none.
GMan: No
Jamie: cookies,pudding,fruit,ect
Leisha: NO
Toby: yes if you had money you could buy stuff in the commisary.
Lisa: No
Consuela: NO unless you have comissary money.
Rachel: Yeah but I never had money on my account
Ralph: Commissary offered cookies, candy, cokes, and noodle soups. Everything was several times more expensive than the same item in a free world store. I would have preferred a decent meal. I would have paid all of the money on my books for one of those.
Chris: there were no other snacks offered outside of the meals but since i was a worker some of the guards were nice enough to break the rules sometimes and feed us leftovers . most of the prices were not to bad on the commisary . all i can remember buying was jars of peanut butter for a couple of dollars and pints of bluebell icecream for around the same.
Sandy: The only way that you would be able to get snacks and extras if had commissary and are able to buy other things If you had money on your books you would be able to get other things that you like
Ginger: No other snacks. Commissary was very expensive and was mostly comprised of junk food and soda which is actually very comforting when you are in jail so I was ordering quite a bit of it.
Craig: Outside commissary nothing! Ramen noodles a Buck a pack! Candy same thing, no sodas only powered drinks, various fishes in preservatives could be ordered basically if one had money you could eat fairly healthy if broke pray a guy with commissary was a cellmate or kind enough to give you his tray.
Lesley: very expensive and being in the psych ward we were not allowed to have sodas coffee chocolate or sweets of any kind along with razors mouthwash and quite a few other things that im drawing a blake on right now

Read about inmate access to medication in the Harris County Jail

comments powered by Disqus