Nye County Sheriff and Undersheriff serve holiday feast to inmates — PHOTOS
Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill and Undersheriff Cory Fowles served a Christmas Eve dinner of prime rib, baked potato and more to the inmates at the Nye County Detention Center on Christmas Eve this past Wednesday, December 24.
McGill credits his wife Tammy with the idea to provide a special dinner for those serving time at the detention center. “It’s hard being in jail, but it doesn’t have to be miserable, so why not do something like this?” commented McGill.
He continued, “We came down on Thanksgiving and served turkey and stuffng and mashed potatoes [and more], so we’re doing it on Christmas and it’s just a good thing, and hopefully we get some positive feedback out of that.”
As reported in the Wednesday, December 3 edition of the Pahrump Valley Times, Sheriff McGill and his wife Tammy personally purchased enough turkey, potatoes and cranberry sauce, to complement that which the detention center provided. It was more than enough to feed and serve the 162 inmates housed at the time.
As with the Thanksgiving dinner, the kitchen staff and trustee inmates prepared the Christmas Eve dinners, then wheeled them into the inmate housing units, where McGill and Fowles distributed them to the occupants. Each inmate’s ID wristband was scanned by a deputy before receiving their dinner, and they either ate in a common area or their cell.
When asked if greater inmate morale makes life easier for the deputies and staff working in the detention center, McGill replied, “That is proven throughout the nation in different detention centers that, not necessarily a happy inmate, but a content inmate is easier to get along [with], easier to manage, so you have a lot less trouble.”
Undersheriff Fowles also added his comments on the dinner, “It’s like the sheriff said, it’s hard enough being locked up during the holidays, away from your family. So, if we can do something, kind of put their minds at ease, there’s no reason they don’t deserve this during the holidays like everybody else. A nutritious meal is a basic human right, and we uphold their rights just like we do anybody else.”
Fowles also mentioned that the Nye County Sheriff’s Office has done a lot of events for the community in the past few weeks for the holiday season, and there’s no reason not to include the inmate population. “Like the sheriff said, a content inmate is much easier to manage,” he stated.
An inmate, his identity protected, talked about his feelings on the dinner, “It’s a really big thing, considering what we get, and the fact that we’re missing our families. We don’t get to be home with our families. It’s a blessing to be able to have a good dinner. It means a lot.”
John Clausen is a freelance reporter living in Pahrump.
