Prison watchdog pushing for new food services audit
SASKATOON Federal correctional investigator Ivan Zinger is again calling on the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) to launch an external audit of its food services, echoing a recommendation he made following a 2016 riot that left an inmate dead at Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert.
Zinger released his 2018-19 annual report Tuesday, covering several issues, including the adequacy of food served in Canada’s federal correctional facilities.
He noted a previous, internal audit of CSC’S food services found inconsistent or substandard meal portion sizes, “deficient” management and “inadequate” quality assurance functions, inspection and inventory controls.
The CSC audit also found some facilities failed to ensure safe and hygienic preparation of food.
Overall, Zinger reported the internal audit found inmates were served food that failed to meet the Canada Food Guide’s nutrition requirements on about one in every five days of each of 28-day menu cycle.
The CSC also failed to demonstrate the national menu was validated by a registered dietitian.
In 2017, a CSC spokeswoman told the Starphoenix that serving sizes provided were in accordance with Canada’s Food Guide and each menu must be reviewed and approved by a registered dietitian.
The CSC acknowledged in 2018 that food-related concerns were among the many factors that contributed to the Dec. 14, 2016, riot at Saskatchewan Penitentiary in which Jason Leonard Bird, 43, was killed and eight others were injured. The union representing federal correctional workers said members have not raised any “major” concerns related to food since the riot.
“Food is always something, it’ll spark incidents. At this point, it’s not a concern,” Union of Canadian Correctional Officers Prairie regional president James Bloomfield told the Starphoenix on Tuesday. He said this is something that’s monitored very closely.
The union found food-related issues were ongoing before the 2016 riot occurred.
Problems around prison food were one of the three or four “straws that broke the camel’s back that day,” Bloomfield said.
The CSC also cited kitchen walkouts involving inmate workers, changes in institution management and an influential inmate who had a “history of inciting other inmates to act out” as contributing factors to the riot.
The CSC audit findings led Zinger to call the CSC’S capacity to provide inmates with adequate and nutritious food into question in his latest report.
“In my view, policy compliance alone will not address the underlying problem of an industrial food production model that puts economies of scale and other purported efficiencies ahead of the nutritional, health and safety needs of the inmate population,” he wrote.
Within the last several years, the CSC has tried to modernize its food services, bringing in standardized menus at federal correctional facilities (prisons, healing lodges, regional treatment/psychiatric centres) to allow for savings on large bulk purchases of food items.
Zinger’s report highlights concerns that the new model also caused inmates to increasingly turn to on-site canteens to supplement meals. He wrote this had increased the use of food as a commodity in the underground inmate economy. He also wrote that in many instances “cook-chill” meals — reheated meals precooked offsite — were being wasted, spoiled or seen as inedible.
The new food services model also leaves facilities unable to address shortages or depleted supplies of food items or meals, something Zinger says can lead to tensions.
Although the Saskatchewan Penitentiary doesn’t use “cookchill” meals, Zinger learned staff have difficulty adhering to the standardized recipes and ingredient lists mandated under the food services policy. He noted there are also problems buying, stocking and serving local fresh produce and meats “on the meagre funds allocated to such a vital service.”