Officials suspect tainted chicken salad culprit in prison illness

Chicken salad prepared by inmates appears to be responsible for the outbreak of illness this week that affected more than 350 inmates and two correction officers at the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction said Wednesday.

Correction Department spokesman Shea Wilson said her agency was notified Wednesday by the state Health Department that it had identified the likely cause of the outbreak.

Health Department spokesman Ed Barham said his agency was “still in the process of ruling things out,” but interviews of inmates indicated salmonella bacteria from the chicken salad was the likely cause.

He said the department is waiting for the results of tests of food and inmates’ stool samples to learn more about how the outbreak occurred.

“We’re not exactly sure at what step along the way of the [food preparation] process” the food became contaminated, Barham said.

Wilson said the salad was served for lunch Saturday at the prison.

Most of the affected inmates began complaining of nausea and diarrhea early Sunday. The prison staff began examining and treating inmates in the gymnasium after the number of complaints grew.

While a few inmates had symptoms as early as Friday, it’s not clear whether those illnesses were related to the food poisoning, Wilson said.

Initially unsure whether the illnesses were from food poisoning or a virus, the Correction Department canceled Sunday visits and halted prison transfers.

Five inmates who had been approved for parole were kept in prison Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday the inmates had recovered

and were released. Most of the other inmates who had fallen ill also had recovered Wednesday, Wilson said. She said the prison will have visitation this weekend.

She said inmates began preparing the chicken salad last Thursday, but she didn’t know when the preparations were complete.

“All of our meals take some planning and preparation because of the volume of people we’re feeding,” Wilson said.

She said the prison cafeteria is air-conditioned but the kitchen is not.

Staff members have the option of eating the prison food for free, but many of them provide their own lunches or eat outside the prison, she said.

Barham said the Health Department will review the prison’s food-handling practices to identify any safety lapses.

He added that the danger of food poisoning increases in the summer because “bacteria likes to grow in a warmer environment.”

“We worry about potlucks and gatherings and people getting together eating food that’s been carried around in the back seat of a car,” Barham said. “It just gets too warm and it can too quickly grow dangerous bacteria, and people get sick.”