Joseph Spector

Albany Bureau Chief

ALBANY -- Pamela Anderson offered Gov. Andrew Cuomo a deal on Tuesday: If New York's prisons go vegan, she'll visit one of them and serve the inmates' meals.

In a letter to the Democratic governor through PETA, the Baywatch actress and Playboy model urged New York to drop serving meat at its prisons, saying it would lead to healthier lives and cut New York's prison costs.

"I'm frequently in New York, and I've been following your admirable efforts to rehabilitate the state's inmates through education," Anderson wrote on letterhead from the Pamela Anderson Foundation.

"I have a suggestion that dovetails nicely with your prison reform plans while also helping to resolve the state's budget crisis. Since New York has over 52,000 inmates, you could save almost $2 million a year and improve the health of the prisoners by switching to nutritious vegan meals in correctional facilities."

And she offered this enticement if he agrees: She would serve food at a New York prison.

That's what she did after an Arizona prison dropped meat from its menu last year.

"If New York follows Arizona's lead in switching to meat-free meals in jail, I'd be happy to inaugurate the program by helping cook lunch and serve it to the inmates," she wrote.

Cuomo's office didn't take the bait.

"We greatly respect the work that PETA does, but there’s probably a better chance of me being in the Baywatch reboot," said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.

In 2014, she started the Pamela Anderson Foundation, focused on the rights of humans, animals and the environment, the New York Times reported.

Cuomo has shuttered at least seven prisons since he took office, and the state's prison population has fallen by about 20,000 inmates since 1999. He also has sought to raise the age of criminality to 18, instead of 16.

New York's prison food has been in the news recently.

In December, the state said it would stop serving prisoners in solitary confinement what’s known as “The Loaf”: A mixture of foods packed into a meatloaf-like brick.

The end of the disciplinary loaf came after the New York Civil Liberties Union and other prison-rights groups pressed for reforms to solitary confinement.