NEW YORK – New York state prisons encourage inmates to get vaccinated against COVID-19 with an incentive to the palate: They offer potato chips.
A recent memo from the state’s Acting Commissioner of Prisons lists pizza and food from McDonald’s among the latest incentives for prisoners to get vaccinated.
The Auburn Citizen obtained a copy of the memo and reported it this week. Specials must include food other than pork, and prisons cannot spend more than $ 10 per inmate, the memo said.
Anthony Annucci, acting commissioner of the state’s Department of Prisons and Community Oversight, said in the memo that the incentive program will run through Dec. 8.
According Citizen, the State also offers a “special Christmas meal of rosbif Christmas ”for prisons that increase their inmate vaccination rates by 10%.
A spokesman for the state prison told the newspaper that prison officials consulted with inmate liaison committees to devise incentives.
About half of the state’s nearly 32,000 inmates have been vaccinated as of Oct. 18.
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