From The Oklahoman's "Notes from the Newsroom" blog, Bryan Dean explains what most inmates in the Oklahoma County Jail complain about:

But the most common complaint I get is about food. I got a letter in the mail today that included a petition signed by 66 inmates calling themselves "Action Today Movement." Their chief complaint was about the jail's food.

I've seen some of the meals inmates get. It's certainly not something I would look forward to eating. Then again, it's jail.

In county jails, the vast majority of inmates are awaiting trial, and are in custody only because they could not post bail as set by the judge. They're not guilty at that point, but Dean certainly seems eager to write off their conditions. (Let's not even get into the psychopathology behind the idea that this is OK because some of them are repeat offenders - basically, the notion that people who have completed the punishment specified by society for past offenses somehow "deserve" bad food once they've done their time.)

Sheriff John Whetsel said the average cost of a jail inmate's meal is 48 cents. The county spends about $1.6 million a year feeding inmates. But inmates aren't the only ones eating the jail's food.

Whetsel said 150 to 200 of his employees eat at the jail's cafeteria each day. They eat the same food served to inmates. If anyone has the right to complain about the jail's food, it is the jailers. I've yet to receive such a complaint from a jail employee.

Well, let's think for, say, 0.05 seconds about why that might be:

1. Jail employees are free to bring their own food, and even if they eat the jail's food, they don't eat it 3X per day for 8-12 months. They can skip any meal they want and get an alternative, or perhaps even cherry-pick the food so that they eat the best parts and the rest goes to the inmates. The inmates, obviously, have no similar ability to choose meals that might have cost more than 48 cents.

2. Employees who complain to the press about the jail's conditions could get fired, demoted, or magically passed over for promotions. Don't think it hasn't happened in that county before.

Of course, rational thinking like that has no place in a paper that carries the sherriff's water, so Dean concludes:

Whetsel has no plans to contract with a gourmet chef for jail meals anytime soon. Until those plans change, I expect I'll get a lot more letters.

Wow, those are the only two choices: provide completely rotten and crappy food for an average of 48 cents per meal that Dean admits he wouldn't eat, or "contract with a gourmet chef." Then again, the Oklahoman has long been known for saving on ink costs by eliminating those confusing shades of gray. Jail == bad people == deserve bad things, that's the Oklahoman's version of clarity.

Next time there's a drought, let's see if Dean feels OK about the prisoners having to line up while the guards piss on them for showers and beverages. That might sound horrible, but "then again, it's jail."