Would you eat it?

Would YOU Eat It? Frederick Mason #55487—O56 USP Tucson PO Box 24550 Tucson, AZ 85734 The following essay is based on an actual email I sent to the Food Administrator here at USP Tucson, dated 6/10/2019. I wanted to share this with you, to open up some lines of understanding about what goes on in many prisons. ' Now of course, I cannot speak for every prison, and I in honesty can't speak for every inmate. But what I am sharing is one part of many that inmates go through. My hope in shraring this is to get a point across that even inmates are people, and deserve some humane respect. This point is shared in the email regarding a meal we got. Let me share the following email, then follow up afterwards. Let's get started: (The following email was mailed on 6/10/2019:) Would YOU Eat It? I am writing in regards to the dinner meal that was served yesterday, June 9th. I do not very often comment on the meals, because I understand that as inmates, we are not at the "Golden Corral", or some restaurant, but at some time, we have to believe that as inmates, and human beings, we ought to be served the same kinds of foods that you yourself would eat. I call in question the meal last night, the "Swedish Meatballs". Let me first say again, most of the meals here are good. I do not complain too much about it. Even meals that I donit like, it is only by preferance. For example, I am not a big fan of the Chicken Fried Rice, but I eat it when I have to. But it is different when the meals are hardly eatable. when I walked into the cafeteria last night, the first scent... or stench,_I smelled reminded me more of "wet puppies" rather than food. I got nauseous as I walked into the cafeteria, wondering what was wrong with the food. As I got my tray, I went to the hot bar to get some salad. I looked at the clear—looking dressing, and taking a gamble, I got some for the salad. I sat down and tasted it, and found myself almost sick. One guy walked behind me asking if the salad dressing was any good. I told him, "it is terrible". Then I went on to crumble my meatballs into the noodles (which were stuck together). I noticed that the meatballs were almost falling apart, as if they weren't holding together. I tasted it and it had a consistency not like meatballs. I struggled to eat the meal, and left, feeling sick. The scent of the meatballs clung to my clothes, and I had to take a shower to get rid of the smell, because it was making me sick. ‘ I talked to a few guys about the meal, and several said that the smell indicated that the meatballs were frozen, and thawed... rather FREEZER BURNED, which may indicate that it was spoiled. There is no doubt, that meatballs should not smell like wet puppies when served. Something definitely was wrong with the meal. -2- Again, I say that not all the meals are like this, certainly there have been meals that I have enjoyed, in fact, most meals are good. But when meals like this come around, when is it time for someone to "pull the plug" on a meal that is not meant to be served to human beings. I say to you, last night's meal was dis- gusting, yet the inmate population had to eat it, or go hungry. Please look into this; it's not like you can serve us a meal to make up for it, and perhaps we should all be grateful that no one got food poisoning, or got sick from last night's meal. I just feel that we deserved to have a decent meal. Again, would YOU have eaten that meal with us? (End of email to Food Administrator) I can imagine that many of you that are not familiar with prison issues may not fully see my side; I have to understand that the stigma of prisons aren't very positive, and for the most part, with good reason. ‘ But what I‘am appealing here is human decency. If you know that you have food that YOU would not eat, why would you serve it to anyone else? We all know what meatballs are SUPPOSED to smell like, and I'm pretty sure it isn't supposed to smell like wet dogs. You don't serve sewer—grade salad dressing to human beings either. Remember folks, the punishment is to BE in prison, not the abuse that happens in it. The laws of this country support that in prisons, inmates are supposed to still be treated like human beings, regardless of what they are there for. The problem is that there is a false assumption that every inmate in prison was convicted fairly. This is not true at all, especially in federal prisons. ~ Granted, many guys deserve to be here; no doubt there are some bad guys in prison. But many made a mistake in life, one out of a pretty productive life. Others were sentenced with far too much time, because a judge wanted to make him or herself look like a champion of justice. Others were sentenced unfairly because the Federal Public Defender did the absolute least amount of work to help, and resulted in a unfair case... you have no idea how common this really is. So I say in all this, have a heart. Not everybody in prison is "evil", and every person has a value. No doubt, we all still deserve to be treated like humans, if prisons are supposed to re- habilitate us. And this includes how we eat. You don't serve dog food to humans, no matter who they are. Anyway, just one of my over 200 essays. Feel free to share or post. I welcome any letters if you want to read more. Take care... (Ask about my list of essays; I welcome any pen pals...)