'I been eatin like a boss': Federal prisoners served steak by unpaid guards during shutdown [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

‘I been eatin like a boss’: Federal prisoners served steak by unpaid guards during shutdown

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. January 6 at 2:33 PM

With the federal government shutdown solidly into its third week, there is no shortage of hypocritical or ironic or just plain sad moments to further enrage apoplectic taxpayers:

There are the overflowing port-a-potties and trash cans at national parks, reports of Vice President Pence’s scheduled $10,000 pay raise, shuttered Smithsonian museums and the image of a relaxed-looking Nancy Pelosi vacationing at a Hawaiian resort where rooms top out north of $5,000 a night.

Joe Rojas, a union leader and a guard at Florida’s Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, would like to add another scene to the growing list: an unpaid federal prison employee, working on New Year’s Day, serving a steak supper to convicted murderers, gang members and terrorists.

For inmates at Coleman, New Year’s Day lunch was grilled steak, steamed rice with gravy, black-eyed peas, green beans, macaroni and cheese, a choice of garlic biscuits or whole wheat bread and an assortment of holiday pies.

The feast was served by not-particularly-festive prison guards and workers who have no idea when they will receive their next paycheck — but who have to come to work anyway because they work in crucial public safety jobs.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/06/i-been-eatin-like-boss-federal-prisoners-served-steak-by-unpaid-guards-during-shutdown/