Photo by Mike Brothers
New ovens can accommodate 42 meals that exceed required inmate nutritional levels. Chief Deputy Gary Carroll shows one of the variety of prepared dinners served in-house at the Moultrie County Jail.

•January 11, 2017•

Moultrie County jail inmates are eating better in 2017 while saving taxpayer dollars at the same time.

Moultrie County sheriff Chris Sims started in house food service at the jail that could save $30,000 in annual food service costs for the jail’s inmate population. “Meal costs from outside vendors was running about $3.50 each, and we had a difficult time coordinating deliveries so inmates received warm food,” chief deputy Gary Carroll said of the outside caterers who had served the population in the past.

“Housing inmates for federal marshals created complaints about portions and quality,” Sheriff Sims recalled, noting the federal inmate population is important income for the county.

Tiger Correctional Services based in Jonesboro, Ark. provided vending services to Moultrie County Jail and were expanding the prepared food service operation to smaller correctional facilities.

“This worked out great for what we needed to do,” said Sims, emphasizing serving the inmate population in-house with this program requires no additional county jail staff.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.