Freedom and Death Inside the Jail.pdf - The Action Program for ...

Firewood: The Root Causes of Problems
market. If in a particular week dried fish is sold
cheap in the market, then dried fish will be the
main course for that week. Inmates attest to a
time when tuyo (dried fish) was served for seven
consecutive days. Thus the joke among them:
“Tinubuan na kami ng kaliskis” (we grew fish
scales already).
Inmates also find their ration “fit for pigs.” They
cannot understand whether their fish is pinirito
(fried) or inihaw (roasted). Rice is not washed
before it is cooked. (Kitchen boys say it takes
time to wash the rice and that doing so would
delay them in preparing the ration.) They do not
understand also why squash is served in very
large chunks almost the size of a saucer. Sayote
is usually served overcooked. Worse, they sometimes
find foreign objects such as rusty nails and
cockroaches in their ration.
Food, moreover, according to inmates, are rationed
mostly way past the usual eating hours.
There are three main factors that contribute to
this. One is the emergence of security concerns
among the different pangkat such that the kitchen
assistants are not allowed to go out of their cells.
Another would be the delays in the purchase of
food supplies because of typhoons and floods.
And yet another, inmate population has doubled
in a matter of months that preparing food for all of
them now takes longer, especially since the Jail’s
kitchen facilities are also limited.
When food is finally served, inmates are faced
with yet another problem—where to eat. Since
Quezon City Jail does not have mess halls, inmates
eat inside their respective brigades. The
problem, brigades are already so crowded that
it is almost impossible to eat one’s food without
Table 4.2: Sample Menu for One Week
Food rations are usually served well beyond eating
hours.
What to do with a thin strip of tuyo that has to be
spread over lunch and supper? Wolf it down, of
course, with a smile.
Kitchen assistants do not bother to wash the rice
anymore. For if they do, inmates will complain about
their ration being served late.
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