The Department of Correction is serving up a plan to put a fast-food restaurant in New York City's Rikers Island jail system, giving thousands of workers there greater meal options. Currently, the jail guards eat the same food as the crims. More of this gripping tale here.

A Department of Correction classified ad in a restaurant industry publication says there is a demand for meal alternatives and for food at the beginnings and ends of guards' shifts. It seeks expressions of interest from companies that would like to operate a fast-food joint in the joint.

"They certainly have a captive audience," Dean Poll, who operates a city concession in Central Park, quipped to the New York Post. About 9,000 municipal employees a day pass by the spot where the restaurant would be if the plan cuts the mustard; more than 1,000 people pass through a visitors' centre five days a week.

There was no word on whether the jail guards, who get one free meal a day, would have to pay for the fast food or how many cigarettes it might cost them. The inmates' menu would be confined to what it's always been.

From AP