Chicago Tonight | Cook(ing) County Jail

Prison food may be notoriously bad but some inmates at Cook County Jail are learning to make their own high-end cuisine. We'll tell you about a novel culinary course now underway at the jail. Find out what’s cooking and how inmates are creating a different type of prison food.

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[andrewca]

This is real rehabilitation and corrections!!!

[shiester]

My last name is Piccinonno. This chef is steady changing lives. More than any correctional officer I’ve ever met by far.

[inchSamsungTV]

Teach these prisoners that there is a way to succeed outside those walls! This is just the beginning but I hope they continue offering new programs for prisoners so they can see they can live a positive and productive life outside of prison. Teach these prisoners different trades that are marketable in the outside world, then when they're out they won't feel like they have to return to old ways to get by.

[patriciaramirez]

3:38 THE CHEF SAID ALL THEY KNOW IS BURGERS, FRIED CHICKEN AND HOT DOGS THAT IS GARBAGE😳

[ricardorangel]

I'm hoping the chef will give me a meeting next week he said.

[michaelortiz]

Where the fuck do they serve ravioli? Not cook county ...only bland kidney beans

[fpsfein]

I wish we had that in county. Sadly I have multiple assault charges. I'd love to be able to learn how to cook.

[MrBoofnomp]

Teach law breaking inmates a skill for free on the tax payers dollars, but charge law abiding citizens out of pocket for the same training...crazy work.

[GVGames]

I can observe just from some of these clips how rewarding it can be. I mean look making pasta ravioli/tortelloni with a roller. If you can get through it, hang tough through it. Look you made something great. Problem is a lot of them just don't have the moral strength once they get out. But there are restaurants in rough areas that would most likely take them on. There should be a return to work scheme. Give them some incentive to keep it up. Doesn't that pint at the end of the day taste better when you earned it. That sort of thing!

[rickusmaximus]

To bad I wasn't in division 11 long enough at the end of 2018 to try the pizza that we can buy. My celly said it was good AS hell

[iqraiqra]

This man respects black people correctly and those who attend this class are good black people 2

[michaelortiz]

Why did i google this....bruh me and others aint shit for a week eating that slop and that boot leg kool aide could paint concrete

[tylerkinley]

This is why it's better to spend money on programs than just doing constant lockdown. You get what you put in when it comes to correcting behavior. If you just lock somebody down with no opportunities and nothing to hope for, he will leave as bad if not worse than he was.

If you teach and educate, theres SO MANY advantages. It's motivation to behave, it gives skills which means job opportunities, it keeps them busy, it can benefit the facilities themselves (kitchen, prison industry, maintenance, etc). Look at where we are today with record incarceration rates and high recidivism rates; what do we have to lose? Let's flip state joints to actual rehabilitation, and give it maybe ten years. We've tried everything else, from quaker style penance and isolation to Reagan's tough on crime to 23/1 lockdown... Let's just make a total effort for just a little while.

[Lucy_loves_you_so_much]

The instructor is amazing god bless him.

[tomdavis]

Everybody should get a second chance ..

[Excitable]

hopefully these men take what they learn here and start a life with it.

[randpherigo]

Juicy smollett will appreciate the 4 star cuisine.. Crook county takes good care of the criminals..

[woxfan]

4:39 all I have to say about inmates in jail! Nasty

[gibbyh]

yeah, the gaurds are eating that stuff, while the inmates get slop o crap!

[juanrenteris]

i hope we can have more programs like this to reduce the amount of inmates returning because feeding 2.2 million inmates 2x a day is costing shit loads of tax money on this, and these inmates need to be fed all year, when we can spend the money on our education and turning our poorest neighborhoods around