‘TURKEY IS NOT A FORM OF PUNISHMENT’

Turkey.

It’s what’s for dinner — today, tomorrow and the day after that.

The menu at the El Paso County jail inspired a brief hunger strike Saturday as inmates protested a fifth consecutive dinner made with turkey.

The inmates refused to eat, arguing the meals such as turkey chili mac, turkey a la king, turkey stew and turkey sausage were unnecessarily cruel. About a dozen inmates threatened violence against others in the jail ward who didn’t want to participate.

The county Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that the hunger strike ended after about half an hour.

“Turkey, turkey and more turkey is not a form of punishment,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a tongue-in-cheek prepared statement. “The inmates accepted this reasoning and gobbled up their dinner meal.”

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Jim Groth said he didn’t know what menu the inmates demanded as a replacement. Jail meals are carefully designed to meet nutritional needs, but they’re not fancy. Sheriff’s deputies who guard inmates often eat the meals.

Inmates make the food in an on-site kitchen at the Criminal Justice Center on East Las Vegas Street. The jail feeds about 1,200 inmates each day.

“I think what they wanted was anything other than turkey,” Groth said. “Staying in the poultry family, probably something like pheasant.”

Spaghetti with turkeybased meat sauce was the jail’s dinner offering for Wednesday.

Penny Henker, who owns a poultry processing company in northern Colorado, said Wednesday the inmates might be happier if jailers mixed up the menu.

“I wonder if they could use it for pizza — turkey sausage on pizza?”

As for the jail’s turkey a la king, a dish that includes creamed turkey and vegetables served over rice, Henker said, “that sounds gross.”
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