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May 22, 2007

Column 43

I apologize for taking such a long time to write again. It has been a lot longer than I intended, but I have been busy with other things. I have pretty much talked about most of the things I wanted to talk about before. I still want to write once in a while though.

People have asked a few things I have written about in the past. One topic people wanted to know about is what the result of the smoking ban in prisons is. The Politicians used the health issues as an excuse to ban smoking in the California prisons. If they were really concerned about the health care of the Californian prisoners they would have made sure the health care in the prisons was better than it is. Instead they have neglected prison health care so much, the prison health care in California had to be taken over by the Federal Government because of how poor of a job the prison health care was. Unfortunately the Federal Government hasn’t improved things.

Another reason why the smoking ban for health reasons is a big sham is because after all the prisoners stopped smoking they have put on a lot of extra weight. As a result there are a lot of other health problems since then. Mostly diabetics and high blood pressure. They still serve the same unhealthy processed food and make available the most unhealthy things from the prison store. Food that makes you gain weight. You can’t really buy anything that is healthy for you. The prison meals are crap food that is designed to feed as many people for as little cost as possible. If the politicians were really concerned about the health costs of the prisons, they would see to it that the food was healthier.

While I am on the topic of food there is something I want to follow up on that I talked about in the past. I had mentioned how the prison has switched to meals that are served on trays made up in the prison kitchen, then brought to the cellblock on carts. Before this, the kitchen would sent containers of food to the cellblock and the guards would go from cell to cell and give you what you wanted from the hot cart. The food was never hot, but it was at least warm. Now, with the trays, the food is cold and when they serve the trays in the kitchen they slop food all over the tray so your food is all mixed up. The worst part about the tray serving system is some of the food smells so badly that you can’t stand to smell it, not to mention eat it. Prisoners have filed complaints about the smell and taste, but nothing has been done to correct it. It is a chemical taste and smell, so I suspect it is a cleaner they use to clean the cooking pots in the prison kitchen. Prison food isn’t supposed to be good, but it isn’t supposed to be so bad that it is inedible. Not to mention how unsanitary the trays are. They aren’t cleaned very well.

About the smoking ban, I know I didn’t really answer that question. I don’t smoke so it doesn’t matter to me. For those who smoke, I am sure they can still get a hold of cigarettes, except now it is illegal. So all it has done has created more problems like prohibition did in the 1930’s.

I know this isn’t very long, I mentioned before I would write shorter ones, but more often. I just have to work on the writing more often part now. I hope to be back to write some more again soon. I send my thanks to all of you who have written to me with your support and wishes. I appreciate it a whole lot.
My best to you all.

Take Care,
Dean