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Three former inmates have filed a class action suit on behalf of current inmates against the director and staff of Oregon's Department of Corrections, alleging they were forced to eat fish and chicken intended as "bait food,'' spoiled milk and other moldy food at four state prisons. (The Oregonian file photo)

A class action lawsuit on behalf of former and current inmates at four state prisons alleges that Oregon's Department of Corrections fed them chicken and fish marked "not for human consumption.''

The lawsuit accuses the Corrections Department of civil rights violations and "deliberate indifference to health and safety.'' It seeks to compel state prisons to provide adequate nutrition and sanitary food handling.

The prisons cited in the suit are Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland, the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem and Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville.

Before state health inspections, prison officials would direct inmates to clean up kitchens and remove "not for human consumption'' food and move green meat and moldy, spoiled food to mobile refrigerator and freezer trucks, only to return the spoiled food to the kitchen after inspection, attorney Leonard Berman wrote in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Portland on Tuesday.

Bridgette Lewis, an inmate at Coffee Creek in July 2013, worked in warehousing in the kitchen of the women's prison and witnessed the delivery of food marked "not for human consumption'' being prepared and served to her and fellow inmates, the suit said.

She was ordered to serve the "substandard food over her objections,'' according to the suit.

Another former Coffee Creek inmate, Tiffanie Lewis, said she also worked in the kitchen in early 2015 and saw "not for human consumption" bait fish and spoiled milk, meats and produce served to inmates. In stark contrast, she prepared "prime beef roasts'' for prison staff, the suit says.

The inmates were often nauseated during and after meals and suffered stomach and intestinal pain and discomfort, the suit says.

The suit seeks unspecified economic and noneconomic damages, including punitive damages.

Betty Bernt, spokeswoman for the corrections department, said the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation.

In 2009, an East Coast food broker who was selling imperfect sausages and other surplus foods to Oregon prisons was convicted of bribery and tax fraud. He had been bribing the state prison food services administrator at the time to get the sales and was sentenced to three months in prison. The former food services administrator, Farhad "Fred" Monem fled to his native Iran while facing federal indictment, accused of taking $1.2 million in bribes while on the job overseeing Oregon's prison food program.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian