300 Inmates in Florida get food poisoning "I wonder why"

Food poisoning sickens inmates
More than 300 inmates of the Santa Rosa County Correctional Institution fell ill Saturday
Wendy Victora
Tuesday April 29th, 2008
MILTON – More than 300 inmates at the Santa Rosa County Correctional Institution fell ill Saturday from what authorities suspect was food poisoning.
Of those, 177 required treatment, according to Jo Ellyn Rackleff, public information officer for the Florida Department of Corrections.
“The (Santa Rosa) Health Department took stool cultures from a sampling of the cases to help us determine the source of the outbreak,” she wrote in a press release. “At this time, no determination has been made.”
She said there were no new cases as of Sunday.
There are about 1,400 inmates at the facility.
Martheny Burgess of Crestview had heard from her brother, who is an inmate, that they were “quarantined,” but didn’t know why. He did not become ill.
She called the facility to find out what was going on, because she was concerned about her children, who visited their uncle recently.
On Tuesday morning, she got a message that it was food poisoning.
“I was just glad to find out what was going on,” she said. “I was so worried.”
Rackleff said that during the outbreak, no prisoners were accepted or released. The movement of inmates inside the facility was also restricted.
“Whatever was necessary was done,” Rackleff said.