The State - News from Aug. 4, 1988

A petition from Orange County Jail inmates that they be served salsa and chili peppers moved to the courts when prisoners filed a request that a judge order the sheriff to serve more Mexican food, or at least hot spices. The demand in the jail is so great that there is even a black market in salsa and chili peppers, according to the petition filed in Superior Court by inmate Thomas F. Maniscalco, a lawyer awaiting trial in a triple murder case. “Some of these items reach . . . inmates on the black market as a result of them being smuggled from the officer’s mess and elsewhere,” Maniscalco wrote. The petition, signed by about 450 inmates, noted that the hot condiments are available at canteens in six state and federal prisons in California. Sheriff’s officials have argued that chili peppers are forbidden because they could be used as weapons. Lt. Richard J. Olson said in June that the peppers might be stuck in a deputy’s eye. Sheriff’s officials declined comment on the court action.