- CDC study (1998-2014) found that inmates are 6.4x more likely to suffer from food-related illnesses.
- Most prison kitchens are outsourced to private companies and paid per meal (providing less food+using poor ingredients+hiring inmate kitchen workers = higher profits).
- Inmate workers lacking food safety training make mistakes (ie leaving food out too long) that spark illnesses (mostly tainted poultry).
- Kitchen food supervisors are more focused on maintaining physical safety than food safety.
- Kitchens are inconsistently inspected.
- 20% of illnesses caused by inmate kitchen staff sharing stolen unpreserved food.
