So you know how in movies, you see scenes that take place in prison? Well, they are not so far-fetched but are not exactly accurate. Believe me, I live in prison and have ten years in the prison system, and it sucks!
Truly, it does. The food is not really good. Sometimes it’s okay, tolerable, I should say. So most of our meals are stew-like soup with pieces of meat in it, or the pork gravy, which is basically flour, water, grease, and little pieces of meat. We do get some casserole with pieces of ham or beef, or the “fast easy, here you go, you got lucky, we even fed you today” trays like a bologna sandwich or the small fish patty. This is basically all we get, honestly.

So, the food is sad but enough to keep you alive, a type of deal. We should get 2700 to 3000 calories a day, but if you’ve seen the tray, you would know it’s not what we should get. I would estimate it’s okay,
anywhere from 1800 to 2000 calories a day. This is in solitary confinement. Just yesterday, 5/19, I was in the day room, so I was blessed with an extra tray. My friend LD says, “Nah! He doesn’t need an extra tray,” jokingly.

 
I’m like, “Hell yeah, I do! Look at this shit, homie. Shit looks like grease water with small pieces of meat.” So LD says, “It’s not what we’re supposed to get.” So I’m like, “Look, check this out.
I put everything I got from the extra tray on the one single tray. So now I got other people’s attention. By now, I tell them, ‘This is what a regular tray is supposed to look like.’ It actually fit the whole tray perfectly. All the food slots were filled up perfectly. They actually laughed about it. One person said, ‘Welcome to prison.’”

So, in prison, the food sucks. In the world, you have a choice on what you want to eat. Plus, you can cook something way better or simply go out to eat. The quality is better, the fruits and vegetables you buy are fresh. You don’t eat or get anything spoiled. Trust me, food is a whole lot better out there than in prison. If there’s not enough food, well, I’m sorry to hear that. You will just have to tough it out because you’re in prison, and you’re not getting anything more than what you got. So, what do you do? Drink some water and wait to get your next meal at breakfast. But if you are blessed and go to commissary, then just make yourself a meal and won’t have to worry about it not being enough or going hungry. Or you can write a grievance about the food, but the grievance process is not very effective, and they will only consider it if there are a lot of grievances on the same thing from many people. Even then, they might say something to the kitchen, and we might get a few decent trays, then little by little, it goes back to what it was. So, tough it out. Sad, right?

The holidays are the only time we get decent trays. Like on Christmas, we get a ham roll with brisket, mashed potatoes, beans, and corn. Before this, you get a cold tray with dessert, pickles, olives, onions, cranberry sauce, and celery. Also, it’s okay on holidays.

The best food I’ve ever had in prison is baked chicken. It’s the only thing good on the tray, and it was a good piece too. So I got full by the chicken alone. Plus, dessert was added to the tray. But nowadays,
I haven’t had chicken on a tray in a long time.

The worst food I ever had was some type of egg casserole, which I took a bite then spit back out. It smelled too. I told a friend, “This shit spoiled, homie. Don’t eat it.” He’s like, “Nah, I ain’t got a bitch-ass
thing in my locker. I’m eating this tray.” I told him, “That’s sad!” Another guy, older, said it reminded him of Vietnam, spoiled food and bad days. He was in the military. The food has changed as far as it’s not really good. It was slightly better back then, but nowadays, it’s not so good.

Just today, 5/20, they gave me a BBQ beef tray, which sounds good, but it’s mostly sauce with water smeared on the main course. It didn’t even fill up the whole main course slot, which is supposed to be filled, but it’s not. Peas and black beans, no bread, and nothing else but that.

The food impacts your life because you lose weight, don’t have as much energy, and just plain leaves you hungry. So this causes anger. The only time cell warrior shut up. ”Shut up!” is during chow time, so as soon as it’s a bad tray, it seems they are angry because they immediately start yelling like crazy at each other and go until the dinner tray arrives. Then they keep yelling. Yup, it sucks.

So, there was a time when some people would get together, like during the pandemic. We were getting Johnny sacks, which is what we call a brown paper bag that holds two sandwiches. One peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the other a meat sandwich. Well, that day they gave us two PB and J sandwiches, and these guys were pissed about that. They started banging on their doors, kicking their doors, screaming. A few managed to open the tray slot on their door. Others, when the security officers opened their slot, they put their arm over the slot and wouldn’t let the security officer close his slot. So the sergeant and lieutenant had to come and speak to us individually. We showed him our Johnny sacks, and they came around and gave us another meat sandwich. But if they hadn’t done that, they wouldn’t have done anything at all. They wouldn’t have even cared, which they don’t on recipes.

Well, when you are blessed and get a chance to go to commissary, you can make some decent meals. The best thing to me is the enchilada recipe I learned from this Mexican guy named ODT from San Angelo, TX. So all it is, is a tortilla stuffed with beans, meat, jalapenos, marinated in a cheese sauce, which the sauce is really the key, and it makes the meal a whole lot better. The side is some dirty rice, which you place on top of enchiladas after everything is done. It’s really good, honestly. When I have the things I need, I make it, but mostly on special occasions like birthdays or holidays because not everyone is blessed, and sometimes you just don’t have what you need to make it or don’t simply have money to go to commissary. This meal actually takes a lot to make. So yeah, you got more like fried fish or desserts. There’s this candy you can make out of creamer and electrolytes. We call it laffy taffy because if you ever ate laffy taffy, it’s almost similar. But the best dessert, which is my favorite, is the strawberry cheesecake. It’s really good, honestly. So yeah, we work with what we got.

Iris’s notes: Ray shared with me the cheesecake recipe in a separate email.

Iris, I just got ecom. I am very grateful for your help. Thank you!

I made something to eat. I made dirty rice, but it’s really red rice because I cook the rice with V-8 juice. I take it out, then put chili powder, siracha mackerel, and drown it in hot sauce. Then, cook it again until the rice soaks up the hot sauce. Lastly, I add jalapeños and turkey bites. It’s good.

I sent my friend Lil B half. I also sent a couple of soaps and 2 pens to my other friend. He didn’t go to commissary, so I blessed him with what I could. Not much, but helpful.

I also made cheesecake with cookies and peanut brittle. My friend Lil B had to put the milk and cream cheese. That’s a whole another process. Because I crush cookies to powder, added peanut brittle also for a little crunch. Add a few spoons of water to make dough, then shape with hands like a bowl. Then, in another bowl, the cream from cookies and crushed-up peanut brittle like powder. Add milk. You have to mix it and crush the cream with your fingers until it all looks good powder. Then add cream cheese. No water, just whip it until there are no chunks, just cream. Add to crust, shape it with a spoon, and let it sit under a fan for 30-45 minutes until it all locks up. I leave it for the next day, so it’s all locked up good. It’s really good.

We have our little recipes in here

Notes: Questions from Iris.
What kind of food do you have on a day-to-day basis? What words would you use to describe prison food?

What is the difference between prison food and outside food?

What if there is not enough food? What do you do? What do other people do?

What kind of food do you have for holidays?

What is the best food you have ever had in prison?

What is the worse food you have ever had in prison?

What is the craziest/unthinkable food you have ever had in prison?

How has prison food changed over the past 5 years, past 10 years? What do you think caused those changes?

How does prison food impact your life and as a person?

Any interesting incidents/stories related to food?

Any interesting recipes you learned in prison? Who did you learn them from?