I was also there for 4 months, I did notice they had no alternate religious diets, but, everything is turkey based. Of course this doesn't cover Kosher diets but what do they care. One thing that struck me as egregious is the fact that if you get 5 minor write-ups you lose your good time. These can be for leaving a cup on your desk, giving someone a soup, or in my case having an extra towel that was given to me by one of their baby sitters with a plastic badge because there wasn't one in my laundry bag when I turned it in. another thing that amazes me is the fact that they want 96 people to be SILENT when the nurse comes in for med pass but if they see someone whispering they will stand next to the nurse and scream at the person whispering...the silence is so the nurse doesn't make a mistake handing out meds, but I guess jumping when the glorified security guard screams doesn't effect her, strange. I can say however that there has been an influx of new employees who do look at the inmates as people and are MUCH better than the older cadre. At one time there were so many on steroids there that there was a constant problem with "roid rage" but someone must have come down on them because I noticed a big drop in muscle mass...except Sgt. Visca (?? not sure how to spell it but anyone who has been there knows who I mean). Somewhere along the line someone high up made the decision to teach the guards to treat the inmates badly, and the new recruits are taught the same, I have been told this by recruits, but it has been toned down a little. The county didn't "chase the feds out, the cells were built to the size standards at the time for the feds but then the standard changed, Valley Street added a top bunk in every cell and they now have twice as many inmates on a unit as they have seats for people to sit. The place is antiquated, the county needs a new jail...and a new plan of management. I had to do 80 days in Cheshire County, NH which IS a Federal holding facility, their modus operandi is MUTUAL RESPECT. This outlook and implementation works incredibly well, the segregation unit is usually empty, there is much less acting up even from the most egregious inmates, the food is NUTRITIONAL instead of bread, pasta, baloney and carrots EVERY DAY there is a full 4 week rotation on the menu with a variety of FRESH veggies, many different kinds of meats and the portions are larger...yet at Valley Street I gained 35 pounds in 4 months because of all the bread and pasta, I lost 30 at Cheshire eating right. The idea at Valley Street is give em carbs, get em fat that way no one can say we don't feed them right. The issue with the requests being thrown away is true, I was dealing with this on a regular basis. I am a combat Veteran of the USMC and I had put in requests to the VA coordinator at the jail that he never received, My mother had died and I received a life insurance check at the jail that they "quarantined" because they said it was "contraband" since the check itself had my actual address on it rather than the jails address. It took almost 2 weeks to find out the check was there and let me know I had to send it back or it would be destroyed. After sending it back the new check was there for another two weeks before it went on my account, even after sending multiple requests to have it put on. I finally fixed the problem by using MY OWN stamped envelope and MAILING OUT the request to the business manager. There HAS to be some standard in this state regulating the county jails, I'm going to find out who is in charge of this and see if I can do something because you can end up in jail here for damn near anything...I drove my truck to work while my DRIVING PRIVILEGES were revoked in NH for asking a cop to hold on a minute because I was on the phone (disobeying an officer), refusing to give my license and reg IN MY OWN DRIVEWAY because they had no reason to ask for it (disobeying an officer), and a couple other tickets, I have a NY license, I was here helping my sick mother, I put fuel in the truck in Goffstown, pulled up to the store so I didn't block the pump when I went in for a paper, answered my cell before I went in....the officer wrote a 6 page police report on how he approached me because he saw me use my phone so he suspected criminal activity. Of course I wasn't supposed to be driving but I am a Patriot, I believe that since I own my truck and I'm not committing an ACTUAL CRIME I should be able to drive my truck in this country. For this I lost EVERYTHING, my mother died alone because I'm such a horrible person for driving my truck when "they" didn't want me to. there was no problem driving in Africa getting shot at as a Combat Driver when my license was suspended for tickets I got on leave. There's a problem here.