07-070/00 Inmate Meals

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

PURPOSE OF ORDER:    

The purpose of this unit order is to establish procedures for providing inmate meals.

SCOPE OF ORDER:         

This order applies to all personnel assigned to and/or working at the North County

Correctional Facility (NCCF).

ORDER:

Each building shall send one rover with sufficient inmate workers to the kitchen to pick up meals. The rover shall leave the inmate workers outside of Inmate Dining Room #1 (IDR #1) after verifying that the hall control officer is monitoring these inmates. The rover shall enter IDR #1 and instruct the kitchen inmate workers to place the milk/juices for their building next to the rest of their building’s food.

The rover shall then obtain the utensil container log and the Meal Count Sheet form from the kitchen deputy and sign both after verifying the count sheet matches with what was allotted with the food carts.

The rover shall then have a minimal number of their assigned inmate workers wait outside of IDR #1 to receive the food carts from the inmate kitchen workers. Once all the building’s food carts are out in the main hallway, the rover shall then escort the inmate workers as they transport the carts to the building.

Meals shall be evenly distributed to the upper and lower decks of the dorms under the supervision of the rover. Each staff station officer shall prepare their dorms for the meal, instructing all inmates to be fully dressed and to “line up for chow.” The staff station officer shall ensure the tray count matches the inmate count for each dorm. One single file line shall starts at the phones by the front slider and goes up the stairs and across the top tier of the dorm. 

No inmates shall be allowed to use the phones until the entire meal line process has been completed. All TVs shall be turned off until all meals have been served. Inmates shall remain on the lower tier of the dorm until serving has concluded to avoid confusion and ensure all inmates within the housing location have been served in an orderly manner.

When hot meals are served, the rover shall advise all inmates that food shall be consumed during mealtime and is not allowed to be stored in the dorm. When cold meals are served in sacks, the inmates shall be advised to consume anything that requires refrigeration within four (4) hours. Staff station officers shall ensure inmates receive a minimum of fifteen minutes of meal consumption time and that all meals are documented in the electronic Uniform Daily Activity Log (e-UDAL).

The rover shall supervise the inmate worker line servers as they pass food onto the trays and hand them through the tray slot to the inmates inside the dorm. It is the rover’s responsibility to ensure the correct portions are given to each inmate and inmates inside the dorm do not re-enter the meal line. 

NOTE:

Supervising Line Deputies (building seniors) shall remain in their assigned building until feeding is until all meals have been served. If food shortages occur, the building supervising line deputy shall verify the food shortage and check with the other in their building for additional food. If there is no additional food, then they shall request additional food from other buildings. If no additional food is available, additional food shall be requested from the kitchen.

In Buildings [REDACTED TEXT], and [REDACTED TEXT], staff station officers shall instruct the inmates to set their empty trays in one stack outside of the security bars. In Building 800, the inmates shall be instructed to stack the empty food trays just inside the screen. As the inmate workers collect the empty trays from each dorm, the staff station officer shall verify the tray count matches the number that went into each dorm. The building rover responsible for returning the carts shall verify all food utensils are accounted for and secured inside the container prior to escorting the inmate workers back to the kitchen with the food carts.

When dropping off the empty food carts, Hall Control shall notify kitchen deputy personnel who will meet the escorting rover and verify the returning items.

A sack lunch/hot meal with a beverage or a burrito with a beverage shall be served to any inmate who misses a meal due to an attorney visit, treatment in the infirmary, etc. Buildings shall obtain these meals from the kitchen to have on-hand when the inmate returns to their housing location. Deputies overseeing the area where the inmate is located during a regular meal period shall ensure the inmate receives a meal and notify the inmate’s assigned housing area that they have been provided a meal.

Inmates who return to NCCF after court and have missed a meal shall be provided one during processing at the Inmate Processing Area (IPA) (see NCCF UO 07-105/00 “Processing”).

Inmate Food Handlers

Inmate workers selected to perform the tasks of line servers are required to wear full clothing attire, hairnets or hats, and gloves while serving food. It is important that the inmate workers maintain acceptable hygiene.

Note: Inmates who are involved in any kind of food related work (e.g., serving cambros, bagging food, utensil washing, etc.) shall be provided training in accordance with the food service plan.

Special Diet Meals

When special diet meals are required for inmates within one of the housing areas, those meals shall be served when delivered. The service of special diet meals shall not be withheld pending the feeding of the entire housing area.