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Easton: Prison kept food unsafely

If county jail were private, city would have asked it to close.

By Paul Muschick | and Christopher Schnaars Of The Morning Call

August 8, 2005

Northampton County Prison has stored food in a bathroom, did not have hot water or soap for kitchen workers to wash their hands and used refrigerators not cold enough to safely store food.

The conditions are revealed in the Easton Health Bureau's inspection records of 2004 and 2005, which were released last week to The Morning Call following a legal challenge by the newspaper to the city's refusal to make the records public.

City inspector Ed Ferraro, interviewed about the city's inspection of prison conditions, described the violations as so severe that, had they been found in a private business, he would have asked the owner to close voluntarily until problems were corrected.

Prison officials said they followed Ferraro's reports line by line and have since corrected the problems, which Ferraro confirms. Prison officials said problems were never severe enough to shut down the kitchen.

''I don't think that our kitchen is any worse than any other kitchen that you would find anywhere else in the Lehigh Valley,'' Acting Warden Scott Hoke said. ''Was our inspection absolutely terrible? I don't think so. Did we have deficiencies? Sure.''

Many of Easton's 2004 inspection records were destroyed by floods last year and this year, but of all available 2004 and 2005 reports, the prison logged more violations than any other food establishment.

Ferraro believes the Easton prison's problem will return because the prison's kitchen is outdated. A complete prison kitchen remodeling plan has been called off because of cost.

''Unfortunately, the county just couldn't afford it,'' Hoke said.

He said keeping a clean, well-maintained kitchen is a priority for the county. He said it is challenging, though, because equipment is old, the kitchen makes 1,800 meals a day and inmates do most of the work.

Some problems might be expected under those conditions, Hoke said, especially when restaurants with professional employees ''are lax on occasions, too.''

The Morning Call first sought the Easton inspection records as part of a nine-month analysis of Pennsylvania's system for inspecting restaurants, school cafeterias, day-care center kitchens and other food establishments.

The newspaper analyzed inspection reports and compiled 200,000 records into the first online database in the state. The public can view those inspection records at http://www.mcall.com .

After initially arguing that the public did not have a right to the records, Easton relented after an appeal by the newspaper under the Pennsylvania Right to Know law.

Prison inspections spotty

Like other food establishments, county prisons are covered by a patchwork of agencies. And just like restaurants and food retailers, some prisons are inspected more often than others and score better or worse than others.

State inspectors, for example, also found problems at the Berks County Prison in Leesport last year, and Allentown Health Bureau inspectors have found problems at the Lehigh County Prison.

''We receive inspections by three different agencies,'' Hoke said. ''I don't know of a restaurant that has that same scrutiny.''

The only directly comparable reports are through annual inspections by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which examines everything from security to inmate rights to food services.

Northampton County Prison failed two categories in its 2004 inspection by state officials, which is separate from inspections done by the city.

It failed to meet general cleanliness standards because of missing and damaged floor tiles, and it failed to provide health exams to kitchen workers to ensure they are disease-free.