Removing Microwaves From the Federal Bureau of Prisons

It has come to light that the Central Office of the Bureau of Prisons has come up with the so called “Defunding Microwave Oven Initiative 2017”.  This will in effect remove microwave ovens from all BOP facilities.  Although this issue at first light may not seem that important to people in the free world, it will have a significant impact on inmates’ quality of life while serving their sentence.  The reasons behind this initiative are not exactly known but I’m sure that the BOP will come up with something along the lines of “for the safety and security…” as that is the catch-all phrase they tend to use to do what they want.

It should be noted that microwave ovens are not funded by any federal budget but in fact are paid for by inmates’ themselves through the inmate trust fund.  This is funded by a 30% markup on all commissary items sold to the inmate population, including to some extent the income generated by charges from the telephone system (Trulinks) and computer system (Corrlinks).

The inmates of the Federal Bureau of Prisons need your help to advocate for us so that they do not take a simple item from us that allows us to cook edible food.  The BOP’s supposed alternative is to provide us with 180 degree hot water spigots.  They claim this is sufficient to cook items with.  This is not sufficient and is not a suitable alternative.  Bare in mind that the BOP does not offer any other method of cooking.  There are no hot-pots, stingers, toaster-ovens, convection ovens, etc.  Also, they sell us so few healthy food options as it is and if they remove microwaves then all they will be able to sell on commissary are shelf stable “convenient store” style snacks and junk food.  This is not acceptable.