From Food Security to Nutrition Security: Demanding Nourishment for the Incarcerated

When we think of prison food, an image of unrecognizable meats and watery mystery dishes flashes into our mind. TV shows and movies have given us a hard look into the lives of inmates, and while some of the realities depicted in movies are dramatized by Hollywood, one thing seems to be accurate: American inmates are fed poor quality, unhealthy - and sometimes not enough - food. Over 2.3 million people in the United States are currently incarcerated, and many of whom are being served food that is outdated, unhealthy, and often fails to meet food safety standards. In some cases, the inmates aren’t even given enough food, leading to unsafe weight loss. Why does society turn a blind eye to this blatant violation of food rights? Food security, or knowing where your next meal will come from and what it will be, is a privilege that many in the US have taken for granted. While there are communities and families who are suffering from high levels of hunger and food insecurity, there are many organizations that are working to feed them. The question, then arises: Who is working to feed the incarcerated Americans who are denied a fundamental part of life? I want to focus specifically on the role corporations have in allowing this social injustice to escalate, as well as urge readers to question why prisoners aren’t protected from food insecurity the same way other marginalized groups are in the US or abroad.

Prisons have recently made shifts towards privatization of the prison itself as well as where they choose to get their food, and now many prisons contract with big corporations like Aramark to reduce the cost of food. These for-profit food providers serve food to colleges, sporting arenas, senior homes, and other public institutions, yet the food set aside for prisons is not up to par with the other buyers. Meals for prisoners frequently resemble the following menu, laid out by Prison Legal News: oatmeal, a slice of bread, half an egg for breakfast; two sandwiches with a touch of peanut butter and a small bag of corn chips for lunch; for dinner, chicken livers, onions, beans, and a slice of bread. Milk is rarely part of meals, and fruit can be served anywhere from three times a week to not at all. This unbalanced diet is an infringement on the rights of prisoners to safe and sufficient food.

In Alabama, sheriffs are personally responsible for paying for their prisoner’s food, using the $1.75 a day per prisoner allotted to them by the government. The law has been in effect since 1939, making it not only outdated but also outrageously problematic. Under this system, sheriffs have complete control over what and how much they feed their prisoners. Even more intolerable is that the sheriffs can pocket whatever excess funds they have after paying for food. This leads to an incentive to skimp prisoners in all aspects of food, from quality to quantity - all the more reason to contract with big companies that will charge low prices for poor food. One sheriff was jailed after admitting that he kept over $200,000 that was allocated to feed prisoners. The ability for big corporations like Aramark and higher-ups in the prison system to make a great deal of money off the poor condition of inmates is asinine at best; the clear-cut truth is that society allows them to get away of it because prisoners have been demonized in the media and represented as an unworthy sector of America. Because of the leverage of food created by the poor cafeteria food, correctional officers in York, Pennsylvania have been caught challenging prisoners to fight each other in return for a better food option. The culture of food that is created in prisons is one of incredible indecency, molding an environment where food can be dolled out, tainted, or taken away completely.

Indeed, critics will argue that prisoners are the lowest rung of society and deserve to be fed poor food. To this, I call on Nelson Mandela: “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” Mandela’s message was not one of celebrating the crimes committed by incarcerated citizens, but rather it calls for the respectful treatment of human life. We have an obligation to demand that 2.3 million human beings in the United States, whether they are schoolchildren or incarcerated, have not only food security but also nutrition security to ensure their health needs are being met. Prisoners are already subjected to a number of injustices in the system, from racism to violence to sexism - the list goes on and on. We have a responsibility to the most marginalized sectors of society, because their voices are the ones which are rarely heard. The least we can do is give them a decent meal to eat.