Jails Serve Energy Bars for Dinner

Energy bars have long been the food of choice for athletes, muscleheads and fitness freaks, but now they're the meal of necessity for inmates at some Massachusetts jails.

Inmates in Yarmouth and Barnstable, Massachusetts are getting Promax energy bars for dinner because, the police departments say, they're nutritionally complete and don't cost the department as much as fast food. Before switching to energy bars, Yarmouth was paying McDonald's $5 per inmate for dinners of a hamburger, fries and a soft drink, but now it's paying $1 per inmate to give energy bars to prisoners.

This isn't a large-scale meal program for prisoners; it's just a cheap and easy dinner for people who have to stay in a cell overnight if they're arrested, can't make bail and have to go to court the next day. I've eaten plenty of Promax bars myself, and although I wouldn't want to eat them every day for a lengthy prison sentence, for a quick and easy meal to give someone who's been arrested, it sounds like a good idea.