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Inmates Selling Jailhouse Fire Hot Sauce
Calling it “murder on your taste buds” and “lethal,” jail inmates in Florida are making and selling jailhouse fire hot sauce to the public as a way to add some spice to their food and add a little revenue to the inmate canteen.
“It packs more heat than the heat,” is one line used in a commercial for Jailhouse Fire hot sauces made by Hillsborough County inmates at the Falkenberg Road Jail as part of the horticulture training program.
The three flavors are Original, Smoke and No Escape, which is billed as the hottest. Five-ounce bottles sell for $7. They were being sold for a part of a day last week outside the jail’s main entrance, and they aren’t sold in stores.
Along with going into the inmate canteen, revenue also goes to culinary and horticulture programs for inmates.
The inmates had been growing hot peppers for about a year as part of a horticulture program when one of them suggested making them into a commercial sauce.
They spent two years perfecting the recipe, a hybrid of Caribbean-style hot sauce and a mustard sauce that includes habaneros, scotch bonnets and jalapenos. Inmates get to use some of their own sauce on their meals, which can be a bit bland in jail.
Photo by Jailhouse Fire.
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NO WAY on August 12th, 2009 2:36 pm
Selling to the public ???? Bullshit.
Legitimate business has costs, overhead, insurance, payroll and a lot of other expenses. Inmates have none of them and should not be competing commercially. I can’t afford a commercial kitchen.
Ken R on August 12th, 2009 8:27 pm
I agree with the other comment that this is Bullshit. I’m all for giving people a chance in life, but the first people who should be given an opportunity for a business is one that hasn’t committed a crime. With that said, any profit these guys make should be going to support the victims they committed crimes against. Unless they’re nothing but pot smokers, which is a victimless crime.
Angela Shupe on August 13th, 2009 2:45 am
I am surprised at the reaction this article has received. Some of the last people to ever get a chance to change their lives are excons. Of course we want them to, but no one ever wants to give them that chance. They have the hardest time finding a job once out and it usually leads them back into illegal activities that puts them back in jail. If learning a few basics about business is all it takes to help inspire them to stay out of trouble once their out and how to do it, I’m all for it. After all, aren’t they the ones that need a litte guidance the most, so they can change their ways?
NO WAY on August 14th, 2009 5:23 am
Part of the problem is we put the wrong people in jail. If the corrupt, lying judges and attorneys were put there, then we would stand a chance of going back to the country our forfathers made for us. As it is now, open fraud in courts is OK (if your an attorney) and the judicial has no legitimacy. I can prove serious fraud by attorneys and judges at the highest levels but the wimps in media fear retaliation and won’t print it.
Skills training should be mandatory for non violent offenders but not competition in the open market. They have unfair advantage using public facilities and captive labor. Restrict them to selling in the detention world.
NO WAY on August 14th, 2009 5:25 am
Look at John Edwards, supposed to be a very straight politician. Lie lie lie untill you can’t no more. He’s probably the least dirty.
Sam on August 16th, 2009 5:23 am
What a bunch of haterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Sam
NO WAY on August 16th, 2009 6:04 am
Sam,
Please pinpoint what you believe I hate.
Is it the fact I have worked as an entreprenuer for 25 years and think using public facilities by inmates gives them an unfair advantage? Is it that my experience with judicial corruption and the resulting loss of $70,000 property has made me sceptical of all judicial ledgitimacy?
So tell me, since I have posted here, what specifically do you think I hate?
allen boatman on August 21st, 2009 1:42 pm
First, we are not trying to compete, but we do anyway. However, our aim is to save the taxpayer money!
The sauce is bottled and pasteurized at a private sector co-packing operation in Clearwater. So the private sector gets paid. The inmates grow the peppers, some of the herbs (not herb), and the Meyer’s Lemons that are used in the sauce, so there are no opportunities for the inmates to “contaminate” the sauce.
These guys are taught Vocational Horticulture, that is my main mission, which is a multi-billion dollar industry in Florida, so that when they are released they can do legal, legitimate work when they are released. Our program reduces recidivism from 70% to 30%. So I am very positive about what we do there at the Jail (not a prison). These are small time offenders, read: minimum security, and are doing less than a year in a county jail. The sauce is just a side business with a nice hook, which brings in extra money so we can use that instead of your tax money.
best wishes,
Allen
Cooking with Denay on December 19th, 2009 9:26 pm
Wait just a minute, if inmates can start a hot sauce business, what’s your excuse. Only in America!
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