Sex offenders and a bakery

A reporter's notebook

Part two of a three-part series

By Janet DelTufo

Assistant Editor

In last week's Wickenburg Sun, readers began to learn about a prison tour taken by the author of this story and a staff member from the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC). The first stop on the tour of Arizona's most dangerous prison facilities was the Special Management Unit (SMU) II, located within the Eyman prison complex in Florence.

Two additional tour stops were made, the final stop at the Florence Central unit of the Florence prison complex. Prior to that, however, the second stop on tour was the Meadows unit, located within the Eyman prison complex.

Here more than 1,000 of Arizona's convicted sex offenders are housed. These inmates are in what is considered medium custody, and medium-custody inmates experience a great deal more freedom than their counterparts in maximum custody, such as those in the SMU units.

Housing at Meadows consists of dorms where at least 50 men share housing quarters. Many of the inmates own televisions, radios or other types of listening devices, which they purchase from the on-facility store. Each inmate is granted a small amount of personal space, and pictures of family and loved ones are taped on fixtures near each bunk.

Arizona inmates cannot receive any type of packages from the outside, only letters, and they can only obtain personal items by purchasing things such as electronics, clothing, food, and personal hygiene items through the on-facility store. Each inmate has his own separate money account, and he can receive funds from friends and family members through sources such as money orders.

Televisions sold through the ADC are made with clear housing on the back. They are manufactured in this way so that corrections officers can see if an inmate has tampered with the television. Tampering would take place if an inmate was trying to remove parts in order to make a weapon.

Inmates in medium custody, including those at Meadows, are free to walk amongst each other and interact with other inmates. The Meadows unit offers two fenced yard areas with a cement walking path encompassing the perimeter. Inmates take advantage of the walking area as they engage in conversation with each other. Meadows also offers a number of rehabilitative programs as well as church services for most religious denominations.

Another advantage granted to medium-custody inmates (and some maximum-custody inmates can work their way down to this level over time) is that they are allowed to work in jobs ranging from 10 cents an hour to off-facility positions that pay minimum wage. However, an inmate who earns minimum wage does not get to keep all his pay. Most of that money is used as room and board reimbursement, and the inmate might get to keep 75 cents an hour of that pay.

Jobs offered to inmates include working in the kitchen, the laundry, cleaning the showers, cleaning the grounds of each facility, cleaning the inside of their respective facilities, and working on highway crews.

They can also work in the ADC bakery, where they are responsible for feeding 35,000 Arizona inmates a day. Yes, the ADC has its own bakery, and it is run by a pleasant man who is retired from a large commercial bakery. He is not an inmate, and he runs a tight and clean ship.

Inside his bakery, which operates five days a week, 24 hours a day, all the bread, rolls, biscuits, cookies and cakes, are baked for all of the ADC facilities around the state. It is an incredible operation and walking in makes one think he or she has stepped into a Smart and Final store or small Coscto. Once inside, there are pallets of flour and sugar and packages of breads and cookies.

Special dietary needs are accommodated, and all baked goods must be packaged with nutritional labeling and spoil dates. Each day trucks pull up and transport these professionally baked goods to all of Arizona's prison facilities.

It is easy to see how an inmate's life is much different in medium custody versus maximum custody, but don't be fooled. These men are still being punished. They still must go to breakfast, lunch and dinner within a specified time, and they are subjected to head counts in their dorms several times a day. Yes, they see sunlight, but they don't get to leave the premises or go home with their families each night. It's more relaxed than maximum custody, but it is still no country club.

The contrast between the SMU II unit and the Meadows unit was significant, and it was interesting to observe the differences. SMU II left a sadness to the heart, whereas the bakery at Meadows was inspiring. But all that changed once the tour stopped at Florence Central, which will be chronicled in next week's Wickenburg Sun. A person hasn't seen anything until he or she steps into the unit called Florence Central, where it is all about the death house and near insanity.

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