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Judge tosses Ore. inmates’ ‘bad food’ class action suit

The suit by inmates who served time at four state prisons claimed they were forced to eat fish and chicken intended as “bait food”

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None of the Plaintiffs testified that they were unable to maintain their overall health while incarcerated, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon wrote in his ruling.

Photo/Oregonian /Oregonian/OregonLive

By Maxine Bernstein
The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

A federal judge has thrown out a class action lawsuit by former and current Oregon prison inmates who alleged prison food served was marked “not for human consumption.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon found there was no evidence presented of any sustained “adverse health impacts,’' only occasional illness, or that the food was “constitutionally inadequate.’'

The suit by inmates who served time at four state prisons claimed they were forced to eat fish and chicken intended as “bait food,’' spoiled milk and other moldy food in violation of their Eighth Amendment rights. The prisons cited in the suit were Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland, the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem and Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville.

The judge also dismissed some allegations because one inmate’s claim was barred by a two-year statute of limitations and another inmate hadn’t exhausted a prison administrative complaint process.

The judge quoted from case law, which says the Eighth Amendment requires “only that prisoners receive food that is adequate to maintain health; it need not be tasty or aesthetically pleasing,’’ or even if the food is sometimes served cold, appears “unpleasant,’’ or “occasionally contains foreign objects,’’ it doesn’t mean it violates law.

In this case, one inmate said he felt ill after eating a “pale, slimy’’ fish that was marked “not for human consumption.’' Another inmate testified that he suffered from diarrhea once or twice every six weeks, which he attributed to the food served in prison. One said he got diarrhea three times and stopped eating pink meat patties, and estimated he got sick five times from food served over the course of 50 months.

“None of the Plaintiffs testified that they were unable to maintain their overall health while incarcerated,’’ the judge wrote in his ruling filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland. “They produced no medical records corroborating any decline in health, or any evidence that they suffered from a serious medical condition as a result of the food in (Oregon Department of Correction) facilities.’’

“Claims that food was contaminated or made Plaintiffs occasionally ill, without any supporting medical evidence of any adverse health impacts, does not create a genuine dispute of fact whether the food was constitutionally adequate.’’

The inmates and their lawyer, Leonard Berman, also failed to present any evidence that prison supervisors were aware of complaints regarding alleged contaminated food, the judge said.

“Even assuming that the food was objectively inadequate to maintain inmate health, Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that Defendants either knew about the food quality or that it was clearly established that food of the quality that the inmates describe here, which caused occasional illness but no other adverse health impacts, was constitutionally inadequate,’’ the judge wrote.

The state corrections department applauded the judge’s ruling.

Jennifer Black, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Corrections, called the prison Food Services staff who serve more than 44,000 meals a day, “one of our unsung heroes.’’

©2019 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)

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