Dec 22, 2017 7 min read

Editor’s note: The state Department of Corrections does not permit the publication of inmates’ last names for privacy and identification purposes.

WAYNESBURG – Each family prepares their holiday meal in their own, unique way.

Some prefer turkey. Others like ham. Some celebrate Christmas with just their immediate family. Others prepare a large feast for visiting cousins and more.

At SCI-Greene, inmates are just getting started preparing a Christmas meal to feed 2,400.

The menu calls for 1,500 pounds of potatoes for homemade mashed potatoes and 100 pounds of gravy made from the drippings of about 1,000 pounds of cooked roast beef. Inmates also will be served homemade rolls, 120 gallons of green beans and more than 50 sheet pans of apple pie.

Everything at SCI-Greene is made from scratch, aside from the sliced bread. The mashed potatoes don’t come from a box. The apples in the pie are fresh. The rolls are freshly baked in the prison.

Michael Decarlo, correctional food service manager, said there are few complaints from the general population about the food. The kitchen there is prepared to serve both staff and inmates lunch on Christmas. Inside the prison, the largest meal is served in the middle of the day.

And aside from supervision from the staff, most of the work is done by the inmates, themselves. About 350 inmates work in food service, one of the largest departments.

Inmates who work in food service start as janitors, but can work their way up to cooking food if they present the proper work ethic and attitude, said Dan Davis and Shannon Willochell, correctional food service supervisors.

“If they’re motivated, they get promoted. If they’re not, they stay right where they are,” Decarlo said.

Inmates are also given holiday meals for Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Labor Day, and the menu changes to suit the season, from hamburgers and hot dogs in the summer to pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce alongside turkey.

“We do stuff them, especially around the holidays,” Decarlo said. “We want to keep their morale up. They’re away from their family.”

Davis agreed and said celebratory meals give the inmates something to look forward to.

“They look forward to it a lot, the holiday meals, because it is really good,” Willochell said. “Their trays on a holiday meal are full.”

And of course, there’s the pie and other goodies they don’t get every day. Staff said the inmates are far more relaxed, and are given a few extra minutes for their meal during holidays. Last year, the prison began letting Christians eat together during Christmas so they can celebrate the occasion.

And for those who might take issue with sentenced criminals getting a nice holiday meal, the prison staff said it is unfortunate some go without this time of year. Carol Scire, the superintendent’s assistant, said the state does try to give back to the community and that just because some go without doesn’t mean the prisoners should.

“These inmates live here,” she said, calling the facility a city inside a fence.

In the kitchen

Decarlo is proud of his work and the prison’s food.

“You have to. You’re feeding a lot of people,” he said. “We go beyond the call of duty for the quality.”

He’s made it a tradition to work each Christmas for the 24 years he’s been at SCI-Greene. On Monday, he’ll be cooking alongside the inmates instead of overseeing things from his office.

“It shows my staff that I’m not better than them,” he said of why he spends the holiday at work rather than with his family.

The inmates look forward to it, too. It means something to them that a staff member chooses to be inside.

“You’ll get more out of an inmate if you respect them,” he said.

Of course, not every day is easy, but if the staff doesn’t show prisoners respect, they won’t put in the work. Decarlo said food service is one of the toughest jobs in the prison. It’s a safe environment, but he calls it organized chaos. It’s hot and busy.

“Everything is under lock and key. Everything,” Decarlo emphasized during a tour of the kitchen.

Most inmates come into food service with little to no experience, so they first must learn how to keep themselves and their work spaces clean.

Decarlo is a stickler for cleanliness. Though most of the pots, pans and other items have been there about as long as he has, they gleam like new. He’s also big on safety, making sure everything is served at the proper temperature to avoid food-borne illnesses.

“Everything is piping hot. It doesn’t matter what meal you eat,” he said.

Getting ready

for Christmas

Some find their passion in the kitchen, like James, one of four inmates in the kitchen Friday helping prep for Monday’s big meal. He started in food service in 1995.

“I started to like it,” he said, so when he left in 1997 with a letter of recommendation, he got a job cooking and started to study it at college.

He’s been in and out of prison since but finds he feels most at home making people happy with food. James doesn’t really care what he’s making, he just wants to be in the kitchen.

“I feel very comfortable, like this is where I’m supposed to be,” he said.

Cooking at a high volume is how he learned, so it’s natural for him. Kevin, on the other hand, makes food for special diets. He takes the same meals everyone else is having and alters them, getting the materials and making the dishes separately.

Kevin has been working in food service since 2002 and said he asked to do something different when he was placed on the special diet crew. He said those he’s worked with form a “brotherly bond.”

“They start something, I finish it. They say a sentence, I finish it,” he said. “We have good chemistry, good people. That helps a lot.”

Alexie said it helps to have a good team in the kitchen.

“We all try to work as a unit, a team. Things work out a lot better as a team,” he said. “We have a good team. Everyone works pretty good with each other.”

He’s been working in the kitchen at the prison for 17 years and said with his experience, he would feel comfortable working in a restaurant outside.

“Through the years, I’ve learned so much,” Alexie said. “I pretty much know how to make everything.”

Making the food can be a big responsibility.

“As long as the population is happy, everyone is happy,” he said.

Antonio has been working in food prep for 23 years and said he grew up in there. He helps train new cooks and said his specialties are rice and pasta. He looked to Decarlo, who taught him to cook all those years ago.

His favorite part of training new cooks is when they finally understand it.

“When you don’t have to watch them anymore and you come back and it’s done right,” he said.

Cooking clicked for him, just as it did for the other three helping prep Christmas dinner Friday. Decarlo said with those four, he could give each a task and trust that it would be done correctly. They take pride in their work, just as Decarlo does.