Rubber Spoons and Security - Life at River North Correctional Center

I am an inmate at River North Correctional Center. Today (4/9/2022) we were given a rubber spoon that is so weak you can’t even stir a soup without it folding. Then we were advised that the kitchen would not provide inmates with eating utensils, that we would have to reuse our eating new rubber spoons.

This is not very good practice as we, as inmates, are not given the proper sanitizing chemicals to ensure that food borne illnesses and bacteria do not grow. I feel that someone may get sick from this. It all comes down to River North saying that it’s a security issue but by all accounts, it’s just them trying to save money at the cost of inmate safety and health.

We were also told that we would have to pay for a replacement spoon at a rate of .50 cents when at all other prisons Keefe Commissary sells a durable spoon for .26 cents. River North will not allow a spork to be sold to us. Why is this – that I don’t have an answer for, when I asked as security issues will not be discussed with an inmate.

This place is a security level 4, but higher levels such as Red Onion, Wallens Ridge, Sussex 1 and 2 all sell the Keefe spork as well as Keen Mountain and a lot of other security level items approved for a level 4 are being denied to us here at River North based off security issues.

We all have lost lots of personal property coming from those prisons mentioned above due to cell security issues.