What’s on the menu in jail

The nearly spotless commercial kitchen boasts shiny stainless-steel appliances, vats of veggies and noodles, oversized sinks and 163 cameras monitoring every square inch.

The absence of walls makes that a bit easier. Here, sightlines are key.

Dressed in navy blue and orange uniforms, inmates make up the majority of the kitchen staff at the Clark County Detention Center. The all-male crews help prepare the jailhouse food, filling thousands of trays with meals and washing returned dishes. The busy kitchen hums with efficiency.

There’s no room for error. The kitchen generates about 9,000 hot meals daily – breakfast, lunch and dinner – for roughly 3,000 inmates.

And in a place devoid of most freedoms, decent food can mean harmony.

“The one thing these guys look forward to is a meal,” said Capt. Rich Suey, who oversees the downtown detention center’s kitchen operation.

The 40,000-square-foot basement facility reopened in June 2013 after a remodel to improve efficiency. Two percent — or $5.3 million — of the detention center’s annual operating budget goes toward food service, including staff and products, Suey said.

The county contracts with Aramark to provide food and kitchen management at the detention center and the North Valley Complex, where another 3,000 meals are served daily. Ten Aramark supervisors work alongside as many as 32 inmates, who receive reduced sentences instead of pay. The inmate workers have been convicted of misdemeanor crimes and are serving sentences of less than one year.

Inmates cause few issues while working in the jail’s food hub, but as a precaution, supervisors count kitchen utensils every two hours to make sure nothing has been swiped, Suey said. Two corrections officers also monitor kitchen activity.

Good behavior in the kitchen has its perks: In addition to extra food, inmates earn a food-handler safety training card after learning cooking basics, sanitation, dress code and interview skills. That could help them land a job when they get out of jail.

By 3 p.m. most days, hundreds of insulated trays containing dinner — on this day, chicken casserole, carrots, salad, a roll and cookie — sat on wheeled carts, ready to board elevators. Later, empty trays return downstairs, triggering dish duty.

Jail staff and workers take pride in a clean kitchen.

“I’d put it up against any casino kitchen,” Suey said.

The logistics

1. Trucks of food arrive at the Clark County Detention Center’s loading docks.

2. The food is transported to multiple storage and freezer rooms. The jail keeps enough food on hand to provide meals for three weeks.

3. Kitchen staffers and inmate workers prepare the food. About 25 percent of the food is pre-made and involves only heating.

4. Insulated trays of meals are loaded onto wheeled carts for distribution. Each cart has a label indicating its destination within the jail’s housing units.

5. Each inmate receives a tray of food.

6. Empty trays are stacked on the carts and brought to the kitchen for cleaning.

What dietary restrictions does the detention center accommodate?

The Clark County Detention Center is a pork-free facility to help staff accommodate inmates’ religious preferences. Inmates can adhere to kosher, halal and vegetarian diets, based on their religious beliefs. When inmates request special diets, the jail’s religious coordinator meets with them to verify the need.

Kitchen workers prepare about 750 speciality meals each day — 250 each of breakfast, lunch and dinner for people with allergies, diabetes or high cholesterol. Labels accompany each tray to ensure inmates receive the correct food.

Inmates receive three hot meals per day that equal 2,800 calories and 9 grams of protein. That’s 400 more calories than the minimum required by the American Correctional Association. Each meal costs Clark County 94 cents.

The Clark County Detention Center is considering replacing chicken with a textured vegetable protein product known as soy meals. Soy meals are cheaper, easier to prepare and last longer than chicken. Jail staff recently conducted a taste test with inmates, and 11 of 13 inmates preferred the taste of the soy meals.