It's a scene right out of a Grade B prison movie: An inmate gets his tray, looks with disgust at the steaming mound of chili, slams down his knife and fork and growls, "I'm not going to eat this slop! It smells like (expletive deleted)!"
And this time . . . gulp . . . he was right.
"It's created a lot of chaos throughout this entire facility," said a harried Sheriff Mark Dion.
Dion said he and his investigators will not rest until they get to the bottom (so to speak) of the biggest calamity to rock his jail since the bunk beds started falling off the walls two years ago: Someone put feces in the jail's chili - and if that's not cause for a hunger strike, it's surely enough to attract a horde of personal-injury lawyers.
Dion knew he had a problem on his hands Wednesday when, only minutes after the chili went out on rolling carts to the jail's housing units, the complaints came rolling back. Something didn't smell right, a number of inmates insisted, and we're not talking about the tomato sauce!
The sheriff ordered the entire batch seized, along with the "ghost meal" preserved from every feeding "just in case something like this happens."
He then immediately suspended all 14 of the inmate "trustees" who work in the kitchen under the supervision of three civilian cooks. He wisely put all of the trustees in protective custody until investigators can figure out who fouled the chili and, of course, why.
Meanwhile, up and down the jail's housing pods, the retching had already begun.
"Some people are sick," Dion said. "We've had a few cases of nausea, vomiting. It could be as much psychological as physical."
Either way, it's cruel and unusual punishment.
And this time . . . gulp . . . he was right.
"It's created a lot of chaos throughout this entire facility," said a harried Sheriff Mark Dion.
Dion said he and his investigators will not rest until they get to the bottom (so to speak) of the biggest calamity to rock his jail since the bunk beds started falling off the walls two years ago: Someone put feces in the jail's chili - and if that's not cause for a hunger strike, it's surely enough to attract a horde of personal-injury lawyers.
Dion knew he had a problem on his hands Wednesday when, only minutes after the chili went out on rolling carts to the jail's housing units, the complaints came rolling back. Something didn't smell right, a number of inmates insisted, and we're not talking about the tomato sauce!
The sheriff ordered the entire batch seized, along with the "ghost meal" preserved from every feeding "just in case something like this happens."
He then immediately suspended all 14 of the inmate "trustees" who work in the kitchen under the supervision of three civilian cooks. He wisely put all of the trustees in protective custody until investigators can figure out who fouled the chili and, of course, why.
Meanwhile, up and down the jail's housing pods, the retching had already begun.
"Some people are sick," Dion said. "We've had a few cases of nausea, vomiting. It could be as much psychological as physical."
Either way, it's cruel and unusual punishment.
That was a chitty thing to say.
