DannyBoyinExile

One of the best innovations to make its way to TDCJ in 2024 has got to be the “pancake rolls” they started serving us for breakfast. As a result, the old-fashioned pancakes (wagon wheels) are all but extinct now – and that’s not a bad thing!
I’ll admit that at first I was skeptical about seeing any variant of pancakes on the menu. Like most TDCJ inmates, I was traumatized at the mere THOUGHT of another pancake. It’s not then there’s anything wrong with a pancake, in general. If I were able to go to an IHOP, for example, I’d be ecstatic to try some of the varieties they offer, with things like blueberries, strawberries, bananas – even coconut! – included. In TDCJ, on the other hand? Not so much.
For one thing, pancakes quickly became the go-to meal for breakfast. Who wants to eat cold pancakes, day after day, with no help whatsoever except a scoop of syrup – which was clearly the cheapest version of pancake syrup that TDCJ could possibly find.
And you can’t overlook the fact (at least, WE can’t) that it’s inmates who are cooking the aforementioned wagon wheels. So if they’re supposed to sit on the grill for, say, two minutes – it won’t take an inmate long at all to decide that a minute and a half, for example, is close enough. That will save him a lot of time, considering that he will grill thousands of them – but it will also ensure that the rest of us will be eating pancakes that are halfway raw. Which is nothing to get up at 4am for, to be sure – so most of the monstrosities end up going into slop barrels, which will then be fed to TDCJ’s hogs. (And I’m sure they hate us for it, for sure!)
I must admit that whoever came up with the idea for “pancake rolls” completely revolutionized breakfast in TDCJ. What they do is utilize the same pancake mix – but embellish it with sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, brown sugar, and a little syrup. This concoction is then baked in pans, rather than grilled, and Voila! Pancake rolls are born. Don’t let the fancy name fool you: what it basically amounts to, is coffee cake! And that is definitely something that’s not so traumatic to see on your breakfast tray every morning.
On occasion, it can turn out a little dry, I’ll admit. (Remember – it IS inmates who are cooking the stuff.) But rather than complain, I spread my oatmeal atop it, or just drink coffee with it, like you’re supposed to! If you look at how many inmates go to breakfast now, who NEVER did when it was only pancakes, you’ll see just what an impact that simple idea made.
It’s so versatile that it is just as use on lockdown, when our sack meals almost always contain a pancake roll for breakfast. Some people will complain about ANYTHING, but the only complaint that I’ve heard was that someone’s piece was too small – and people say that about most everything.
I, for one, am grateful to whoever came up with that idea, and to TDCJ for not being so conservative that they wouldn’t allow any changes to its menu. There wouldn’t be innovation without change – and that principle applies to TDCJ as well as it does anywhere.
There a probably lots of good ideas trapped in the heads of various inmates throughout TDCJ. But they don’t voice them, for fear of being laughed at, ridiculed – or just not listened to. We should all speak up, when we have something worthwhile to say. If your idea makes sense, people will listen to you, regardless of who or where you are. Remember, though, that the only difference between being called a genius and an idiot is whether your idea works out or not…
So says DannyBoy.