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Detention centers try to make Thanksgiving dinner special

November 22, 2007|BRENDA S. EDWARDS

While families are celebrating Thanksgiving Day with a large turkey and all the trimmings at home, inmates in county detention centers also are getting a little taste of holiday foods.

They will get a traditional dinner of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and rolls, according to Boyle and Lincoln County jailers.

Although the inmates won't be at the table with their families, Thanksgiving is a big visitation day for those incarcerated.

Boyle Jailer Barry Harmon said Thanksgiving is one of the days when families typically fill up the visitation areas where they can talk with inmates by telephone but cannot have personal contact.

"We try to deviate from the menu on special days like Thanksgiving and Christmas," said Lincoln Jailer David Gooch, adding that most inmates seem to appreciate the food.

"We try to feed each inmate well at other times, but not everyone thinks we do," said Gooch.

At the Lincoln County Regional Jail, kitchen supervisor Jamie Wayne is usually on top of preparing the special menu, Gooch said.

On the menu

Wayne said the dinner includes turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, broccoli casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce and sweet tea. Dessert is pecan or pumpkin pie with ice cream.

"I'll cook seven 25-pound turkeys," said Wayne. "That's enough to feed 140 inmates."

Wayne, who has been cooking at the jail about a year and half, said it's traditional to have turkey on Thanksgiving and ham at Christmas.

"It's tough for the inmates to be in jail on holidays," said Gooch. "Everyone is thinking of their families, which causes some depression."

Jail personnel try to keep watch on inmates that tend to get depressed. Many family members try to visit their relatives in jail during holidays, and that helps, Gooch said.

At the Boyle County Detention Center, the Thanksgiving menu will include turkey, dressing, green beans, rolls and pumpkin pie. Madge Harlow, who retired, but came back to work, orders the food, Harmon said. Rita Irvin and Evelyn Gann are full-time cooks at the jail and do most of the cooking. Inmates also help in the kitchen.

One or two of the more than 286 inmates will get out for the holiday, but the others will get stuffed with turkey, then watch the Thanksgiving Day parades on TV, Harmon said.

"Nothing replaces being at home with family, but we've got men and women in Iraq and other parts of the world that won't be with family," said Harmon.

He recalls being on a mission trip in Nigeria on Thanksgiving Day a few years ago. "It was the only one I'd missed being with family," he said. "It was hard."

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