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