Jail Issue Heats Up : Inmates Ask Court for Spicier Food

The hottest issue in the Orange County Jail--a petition from prisoners that they be served salsa and chili peppers--moved to the courts Wednesday when inmates filed a request that a judge order the sheriff to serve more Mexican food, or at least hot spices.

The demand for spicy food in the jail is so great that there is even a black market in salsa and chili peppers, according to the court documents, written by inmate Thomas F. Maniscalco, a lawyer awaiting trial in a triple-murder case, and filed Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court.

“I have seen jalapeno peppers, bottles of hot sauce and bottles of Tabasco in the possession of inmates (who) had obtained (them) from other inmates,” Maniscalco wrote. “Some of these items reach . . . inmates on the black market as a result of them being smuggled from the officer’s mess and elsewhere.”

The report, signed by about 450 prisoners, notes that chili peppers, salsa and hot sauce are available at canteens in six state and federal prisons in California. Even the toughest convicted criminals on San Quentin’s Death Row can buy chili peppers for $1.15, salsa for $1.30 and Louisiana Hot Sauce for 55 cents at the prison, the report says.

But in Orange County, the report says, jail inmates risk being disciplined if they are caught with the hot stuff because the Sheriff’s Department has said chili peppers could be used as weapons against deputies. Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said in June that the peppers could be stuck in a deputy’s eye.

The Sheriff’s Department also has refused the inmates’ request for more Mexican food and spices in meals served to inmates. The county counsel’s office has concluded that the sheriff was not legally required to provide spices or Mexican food.

The petition, a writ of habeas corpus , asks a judge to rule that the approximately 1,400 inmates in the main men’s jail in Santa Ana should have access to the spicy food they want.

Olson declined Wednesday to comment on the court petition.

Security Issue Challenged

The report by inmates also challenges the security issue raised by the Sheriff’s Department.

“The Orange County administration seems to believe that the mere utterance of the mystical incantation ‘security interest’ is an invocation of magical talisman by which all inmates rights and privileges evaporate,” the filing says.

“We the inmates, are unaware of any escapes perpetrated with these peppers or of any inmate or deputy who has been assaulted or injured in any way with them. They are simply to be eaten and enjoyed.”

The chili pepper issue erupted in the jail last May, when Latino inmates charged that they were being discriminated against because they had to eat bland, mostly American food such as turkey a la king or macaroni and cheese.

The Latino inmates filed a complaint with the sheriff, and included an article in the magazine A Healthy Man’s Guide To Living, which says the chili pepper is more than a condiment in Mexico, it is a “way of life.”

Because some inmates get special diets because of their religious beliefs, the Latino inmates said their heritage also justified eating particular foods.

The original complaint included a petition with about 60 signatures. Of the approximately 450 people who signed Wednesday’s petition, about 55% are Latinos, the report states.

“Virtually all across the board, the entire jail population joins the Latinos in their request and eating preference,” the court papers say.

Maniscalco said the jail serves a Mexican meal of tamales once a month, but the sauce is not spicy.

Italian Meals Cited

He also noted that the Italian meals served in the jail, such as ravioli and lasagna, are prepared with garlic and onions, which have the same security risks as chili peppers.

“Inmates have shampoo, soap, cleaning solvents, grapefruit, lemonade, garlic, onions, salt and black pepper, razors, pencils, fingers and a myriad of other things always available to assault deputies with,” he wrote. “There is no shortage of stabbings with homemade knives here at the jail.”

In another document used to support their plea, the inmates included a 1987 study from the University of Pennsylvania by two scientists seeking to link genetics and taste preferences.

“We conclude that there is a suggestion of a genetic component having to do with the liking for chili pepper,” the inmates say.