Bernard Kerik was jailed for three years in the federal prison system and doesn't recall ever being "asked what kind of food do you like" but does remember that bacon was "one of the hot commodities" on the black market among prisoners.
Kerik was addressing a decision by the federal Bureau of Prisons to
ban pork products from being served in the 122 prisons it runs nationwide.
A prison bureau spokesman told the Washington Post that surveys found prisoners do not like pork and because of that and the fact that it was costly to serve, the decision was made to remove all pork products from the prison menu.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations praised the move for "facilitating the accommodation of Muslim inmates."
"I was in the federal system for three years, I was never given a survey," Kerik, a former New York Police Department commissioner, told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth Monday on
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"I was never asked what kind of food do you like or you don't like…. And I will tell you, pork, bacon, was one of the hot commodities on the black market within the prison system."
"So I'm not sure who they talked to, what survey they took, supposedly. I just don't see it. I don't get it."
Kerik pled guilty to making false statements and tax charges primarily relating to his children's nanny and discounted apartment renovations. He served a sentence at a minimum-security federal prison camp from May 2010, to Oct. 2013.
During his law enforcement career, Kerik served as First Deputy and later Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction and was responsible for overseeing the New York City jail system, including Rikers Island, one of the largest and most violent jail systems in the country.
Kerik is the author of the new book
"From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey from Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate #84888-054."
As to the Muslim angle to the pork ban, he said, "There's a constant increasing recruitment of Muslim prisoners within the federal BOP. I think anybody within the system, staff or inmates, will tell you that…."
"This also may have something to do with economics," he continued. "However, I also ran Rikers Island for six years. And I could tell you, during the time I ran Rikers, from 1995 to 2000, I never had a big issue between pork or beef or anything else for that matter."
When asked by host Hayworth whether he ever took a survey of Rikers' prisoners' culinary preferences during his time running the prison, Kerik replied in a word.
"No."
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