Inmates may soon be cooking for other inmates at the LincolnCounty Jail under a plan proposed to the Lincoln County BoardTuesday.

“I think this will be a great program, save the county money andpossibly make the county some money on the jail side,” said SheriffWiley Calcote.

Jail Warden Joe Price outlined the plan for the board. Under theplan, a kitchen would be installed in the jail and the ingredientswould be purchased through a food service. Inmates would cook inthe kitchen in return for possibly receiving time off theirsentence for good behavior.

“The taxpayers’ money is of the utmost importance to us, andthis is the program we could put in place that would have the mostimmediate impact” in keeping the cost of the jail down, Pricesaid.

The county is currently charged $6.84 per day per inmate formeal costs through a contract with Valley Services, according toDavid Farris, the company’s director of sales.

Herman McGraw, a salesman with SYSCO Food Services, presentedthe board with a menu that he claimed would feed inmates at a dailycost of less than $3 per day.

The county could reduce its meal costs from $124,830 per year to$54,750 by adopting the sheriff’s proposal, McGraw said.

A $20,000 start up cost would be necessary to cover the cookingequipment and jail modifications to make a kitchen, but those costswould be recovered by the savings in the first year alone, Pricesaid.

“I think there is enough money in the jail budget to cover thisat no further cost to the county,” Calcote said.

Linda Robinson, kitchen supervisor at the Marion-WalthallCorrectional Facility, said she feeds the nearly 500 inmates ofthat facility at less than a dollar per meal under the plan thesheriff is now proposing.

“If we go over 60 cents a meal I’m in trouble,” Robinson said.”The inmates eat well, but it’s not mama’s cooking. Our costs comedown a lot because the inmates do our cooking and cleaning.”

The inmates are supervised by a jail-employed kitchensupervisor, she said, which the Lincoln County Jail would have tohire.

Price said he visited several jail facilities before draftingthe proposal and was most impressed with the program at theMarion-Walthall jail.

“I’ve been down there and I’ve seen the type of meals she canprepare for the money. It’s phenomenal,” he said. “You can fix oneof these meals right here cheaper than you can fix a sandwich.”

The price reduction is possible, McGraw said, because theingredient purchases would be made in bulk to feed 50 people.

“We know exactly how much it will take to provide 50 inmateswith four ounces of chili beans. It’s all mathematics,” hesaid.

Farris, who represents the company currently supplying the jailwith its meals, disagreed with the proposal.

“You’ve heard all about these savings, but you haven’t heard acost per meal,” he said.

Other factors must also be included into the meal cost, such asthe labor of the jail employee, fire insurance and liability, hesaid. Farris also requested the board compare “apples to apples” bycomparing calorie counts on the meals his company provides to thosethat would be served under the proposal.

“We would like the opportunity to compete on an even scale. Ididn’t come up here to debate, but you need to take a serious lookat this,” he said. “You’ve heard some numbers that are prettystaggering, but you haven’t heard anything to back it up.”

Calcote disagreed and said the proposal had been studied fromevery angle before he brought it to the board.

“There are no hidden costs anywhere,” he said. “This is whatwe’ll pay. Lord have mercy, I have to look at these people for atleast the next four years. I’m not going to put out anything that’snot true.”

Another aspect of the kitchen plan calls for the creation of ajail canteen to provide inmates with a few items, such as sometoiletries, candy and other incidentals.

The canteen would charge a “fair market value” for the items andtherefore not only pay for itself, but also turn a small profit tofurther reduce the costs of maintaining the jail, Price said.

In order to keep money, which is considered contraband, from thejail, relatives and friends could send a money order that would gointo the inmate’s canteen fund, Price said. That fund wouldtransfer with the inmate should he change jails.

Robinson said they manage a successful canteen at theMarion-Walthall facility. The canteen there is only open one day aweek because of the number of inmates at the facility.

“We’re going to have it open more than one day a week to avoidhoarding and fighting among the inmates over hoarded goods,”Calcote said.

The board expressed positive interest in the proposal, buttabled the subject until the next meeting so they could consultwith Board Attorney Bob Allen, who missed the meeting because of aprior court commitment.