No "KIND OF" about it--jails are depressing places to work in or to live within. I did 21 months of corrections duty at the start of my career, and that was more than enough to suit me. Deputies are now doing between 3 and 6 years in the jail prior to re-assignment to patrol billets, and as you might expect a lot of them opt out and get hired by city agencies that don't have jails. This tendency has been a feature of my old shop since I hired on in 1977.
And THAT is a genuine shame. Working in a custody environment for a couple years made me a MUCH BETTER field deputy. You learn who the crooks are, and if you treat them half-decently and with respect those 'loaves you cast upon the waters' will return ten-fold in good outcomes. I very seldom had to "go physical" with arrestees--they knew that I knew who and what they were and are, so the BS level was naturally reduced to a minimum.
21 months out of almost 28 years wasn't a huge percentage of my time, but it was sufficient for me. My little sister (the one with the brains) spent close to half of her almost 30 years at the same agency working corrections as deputy, sergeant, and lieutenant. She has a skill set for admin work that I utterly lack entirely, and at the same time she was a very capable field troop that her peers and subordinates LOVED. Some folks have a "knack" for "working inside"--Kristy definitely does.
Our old county is in the final phases of building a $330 million East County jail facility to manage the various and sundry custody complications of a county just east of the Los Angeles megacity monster. As might be expected, the County is having some trouble finding people to staff the place. Their latest cost-saving and personnel-management delusion is to unload at least 3 of its larger contract cities and force them to staff their own police departments from the ground up. The positions disposed of in this fashion would be transferred to the East County facility--all 200+ of them. Oh, right--200 people are going to uproot their families and move 100+ miles to keep their jobs--at a time when other nearby agencies are offering hiring bonuses of up to $10K for qualified/certified peace officers--and paying higher salaries. That must be some REAL GOOD DOPE they are using. And let's also not forget--Temecula, Moreno Valley, and Palm Desert will be needing experienced personnel also--WHO ARE ALREADY IN PLACE AND HAPPY TO STAY. BRILLIANT! This will not end well.
As for jail food--beans and cornbread is pretty good, AFAIC. So was the chow at my jail site (Indio)--inmates housed for long-term trials gained significant weight during their lodgement, as did a few of the deputies. I never saw or heard of a chow riot at Indio Jail during the time I worked there--the free cook said "Inmates won't throw good food at staff". He was correct.