The drama over whether the Milwaukee County Jail’s stomach-turning fare for ill-behaved prisoners amounts to cruel and unusual punishment has come to a lackluster finish, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. That’s leaving a sour taste for the Milwaukee County sheriff’s office, which hoped to take the case to a trial starting Monday. Now it’s stuck on the sidelines after an eleventh-hour settlement by an insurance company representing the maker of the county jail’s infamous “Nutraloaf.”
A concoction including poultry, vegetables and beans, biscuit mix and something called “dairy blend,” Nutraloaf is served in jails and prisons across the U.S.; in Milwaukee County, armed robber Terrance Prude, who is serving a 100-year sentence, sued, saying the Nutraloaf he was served was rancid, making him so violently ill he lost 14 pounds over 19 days. The settlement terms have not been released, but a commander in the sheriff’s office said it was a five-figure settlement handed out by the insurer for Aramark, which makes Nutraloaf for Milwaukee County’s jail and other. One official worried that more lawsuits will be encouraged by settlement of this one, which he called “an act of cowardice.”