DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - Sales within Ohio prison walls totaled $38 million last year as inmates bought junk food and other items with money from home and from working prison jobs.

The total was up from $37.18 million in purchases at prison commissaries during 2011. The Dayton Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/zc3Gez) the profits pay for shared amenities including books and televisions for common areas.

The newspaper reports that prison commissary items are marked up an average of 25 percent.

Dayton Correctional Institute commissary manager Fern Boddie said her top-selling goods are soft drinks Mountain Dew and Pepsi, followed by chicken-flavored ramen noodles. ``The Store'' at the Dayton prison stocks more than 1,000 different things and has 14 inmate employees.

 

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)