The ground beef is bought with proceeds from the sale of prison-raised cattle. Although the prisons have more than 250,000 hens, they are used only for egg production. It is less expensive to buy chicken meat at market. The system raises and serves its own pork products. They will be allowed to attend school only if they earn that privilege through good behavior and satisfactory performance in their prison job.
Vocational classes are also available.
The prison system's Windham School District is the nation's only fully accredited school system within a prison. Currently more than 60,000 inmates are working on academic courses and 16,000 on vocational courses. Windham awards about 9,000 GEDs and 8,000 Vocational Certificates a year. Offenders who have a high school diploma or GED may earn the privilege of taking college courses. Upon release onto parole or mandatory supervision, the offenders must reimburse the State for those courses that are offered through a contract arrangement with various junior colleges.