detention center, feeding the 1,200 men and women incarcerated here falls to inmate workers like rasheed. in this kitchen, they learn to do things big. >> right now what i'm doing is i'm just going to boil the potatoes first, for 45 minutes or an hour. then i'm going to take them over, mash them with butter and milk. most jails use instant potatoes. we're using real potatoes here. >> conte is part of a crew that serves about 26,000 inmate meals a week. >> they order approximately 30,000 pounds of food per week. 18,000 cookies, 10,600 eight-ounce cartons of milk. approximately 1,400 pounds of sandwich meat per week. the food is prepared by inmates. every 30 days they're down here working, they could receive five days shaved off their sentence. >> i try to do my best when i cook. you know what i mean? it's not that bad. could have been worse. i've seen worse in other jails. the food is not that bad here. >> not every inmate likes the food, but it's almost gourmet when compared to a special meal the jail calls nutritional loaf. >> that's how they feed us in here. you don't want that. looks