Source: MEATINGPLACE, 10/8/15

Pork is off the menu for the nation’s 205,700 inmates incarcerated across the federal prison system, The Forth Worth Star-Telegram has reported.

At the beginning of the system’s 2016 fiscal year 2016, items ranging from chops to roasts to barbecue have been cut from the menu — although a Bureau of Prisons spokesman told the media that the decision had nothing to do with dietary restrictions of Muslim and Jewish inmates.

“While we understand that inmates are denied certain freedoms in prison, we don’t think pork should be one of them,” Dave Warner, director of communications for the Pork Producers Council, told Meatingplace.

“It was really based on the survey of inmate population as well as cost. Religious meals are accommodated but that does not affect the national menu,” Bureau of Prisons spokesman Ed Ross told the Star-Telegram. Burgers, baked chicken and chicken fried rice all remain on the federal prison menu, according to the report.

“We find it hard to believe that a majority of any population would say, 'No thank you to bacon,’” Warner added. “As for costs, USDA every year purchases pork at a very good price for use in feeding programs run by several federal agencies. It’s perplexing that federal prisons are forgoing using a great protein product at a great price.”

State prisons process own meat products
The move to cut pork has not made it to the state level, where dozens of state departments of correction oversee their own meat processing facilities. Some are rudimentary operations that produce basic products — bologna, meatloaf, beef franks — for use within the system. Others are designed to kick start the reentry process by offering formalized training to inmates looking for a career upon release.