I am now at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton, Illinois. I was transferred here to settle a point on the First Amendment Right case, which I won. (See U.S. Central District case in Peoria Division. Harris-vs-Warden Calloway, et al., 2:17-cv-02075-MMM. This case is still active and in damages trial phase.)
Once I arrived here, all of us were placed on administrative lockdown due to Covid-19. We are restricted to commissary purchases of fifty dollars in food twice a month. (The purchases are delivered to our cells.) The food is even worse than the normal food, and we are all forced to eat it because we can’t make enough commissary purchases.
So it is time to address the misappropriation of state dietary funds
Point One
There are no funds appropriated to buy special food for the staff. The funds appropriated in the budget are to buy food for the prisoner population.
Point Two
The rules state the officer may eat one free meal on every shift worked. They may have a choice of two meals served to the prisoner population lunch or supper or supper and breakfast. But they are to eat the same meal fed to the prisoner population on that day.
Since the Illinois Department of Corrections took control of the prisons back from the Chicago and East St. Louis street gangs in 1996 a misappropriation of the state dietary funds has taken place. Let me explain.
The dietary manager prepares meals each day for the staff, meals that are not fed to the prisoner population. This high-quality food is bought with the money appropriated for the prisoner population budget. Therefore, the money left over for the prisoner population food must be stretched further. So low-quality food is bought and fed to the prisoner population.
This is the misappropriation of state dietary budget funds I am talking about. Yes, there is a clever little plan in place by the dietary manager. These pork chops, pork steaks, pork shoulder roast, beef, bacon, chicken, and turkey are marked, “Not enough to feed to inmate population. Sent to officer’s kitchen.” Special food is bought and marked, “For Officer’s Kitchen Only.” This is the theft of funds in place now.
Each Governor in place since the year 2000 has cut the prisoner dietary budget. Now, with this theft of funds to supply special meals to staff each day, the food bought and fed to the prisoner population is garbage.
I watch from my cell each day as the trays are picked up from the cells. More food is thrown out each meal then is eaten by the prisoners.
Then you add the restricted commissary and lock down in place. Now we have an issue to be addressed. This misappropriation of state dietary budget funds must be addressed. The mushroom therapy in place of, “feed them crap, and keep them locked in the dark,” is a bad combination—for a hungry prisoner is not good.
So take a look at the dietary order books. Then review the menu fed to the prisoner population. The facts will speak volumes for themselves.
The catch twenty-two here is the prisoner has no one to go to for an investigation. The food supervisor and the dietary managers are state employees. As state employees they are represented by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. So there is no state agency to investigate this. And since there is no prisoner’s constitutional right being violated here, the prisoner cannot go to the Federal Court. A prisoner cannot get a state employee investigated by the Illinois Attorney General—the AG’s office will not investigate its own employee or client.
For no, the only thing I can do is expose this illegal act and then hope that some citizen will not like the misappropriation of state funds. That the citizen will demand an investigation into the way their state tax dollars are being spent. Until then the governors have cut the prison dietary funding in order to balance the state budget.
The money for food is slim already. Then you syphon funds off to buy special food and the prisoner ends up eating garbage.
