Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Rain Stuff Lauren vogelbom here. The American prison system is an overcrowded, sometimes draconian maze that houses more than two million people in more than one thousand, seven hundred state prisons, one hundred and nine federal prisons, more than three thousand, one hundred local jails, some one thousand, seven hundred juvenile facilities, military prisons, immigration detention centers, psychiatric facilities, and on and
on and on. The many problems inherent in the setup are deep and disturbing, often overlooked, but still a critical issue. The food in most lock ups is horrible. What the system provides to those millions now incarcerated in the American prison system is to many nothing short of a public health crisis. Some might consider it a crime in itself, cruel and unusual. We spoke with Loretta Rafe, a policy
researcher for the advocacy group Prison Voice Washington. She said, when we're talking about the quality of the food, we're not concerned with how the food tastes so much. Prisoners are not asking for tasty, luxury food. They just want food that's nutritious, people think that prisoners are asking for flam and yon. That's not it. They're just wanting food that's not processed with a bunch of texturized vegetable protein and unhealthy oils and white flour. They just want fresh
vegetables and fruit and a sufficient amount of protein. The challenges in feeding a prison population that large and doing it cheaply enough that the taxpayers who fit the bill don't revolt can't be downplayed. It's expensive to feed that many prisoners. Estimates range in the millions of dollars a year per state. It's complicated too, as it is on the outside, one type of meal does not fit all.
Some inmates require special diets on religious grounds at kosher or halal, for example, or for health reasons like gluten or dairy free. The rules on special requests vary from state to state, and even from facility to facility. Many prisons will accommodate requests when they can, but it's not
always easy or effective. For example, an inmate in New York went to court in twenty eighteen to force state prisons to recognize his right to meals that did not set off a dairy allergy and that were suitable for his diet as a Nazarite Jew. A federal judge sided with the state, ruling that the prisoner's demands would place an undue burden on the state. Later, an appeals court
overturned that decision. The New York case noted that the Upstate correctional facility has a kosher kitchen and a Kosher meal plan, though that wasn't suitable for Nazarites. But many prisons throughout the nation do not have specialized kitchens because more and more have their meals prepackaged and shipped in
from off site vendors in order to cut costs. A twenty sixteen report by Prison Voice Washington described the situation like this as Correctional Industries, Washington State's prison food vendor, took over food services around the state. It gradually eliminated all freshly prepared natural food without exception, every single main course is now a reheated, highly processed Correctional Industries product
with high amounts of sodium. Apart from the occasional serving of beans, lean natural proteins are never served at any meal. Unprocessed meat is never served. For example, the word turkey on the menu doesn't mean that inmates receive turkey meat, but rather a processed formed product containing soy, protein, sugar and some amount of turkey material, and even those simmered beans a healthier choice were only offered five times per
every twenty eight days. Even if the food is prepared in a way that meets religious or dietary requirements, that doesn't mean it's nutritious or that the meal is balanced. Often, if an inmate is, say, dairy intolerant, the dairy from the meal is simply removed. Nothing replaces it. Aside from special needs meals, an average meal at an average jail or penitentiary is about what you'd expect, often skimpy, locking in nutrition and entirely on appetizing, and of course cheap.
According to The Guardian, in some prisons, inmates are fed on less than a dollar and twenty cents a day. Thanksgiving meal at Maricopa County, Arizona Jail under former hardline shriff Joe or Pyo cost fifty six cents. According to the Marshall Price, which is a non profit journalism group that works on criminal justice topics, the meal included a cup of carrots, a cup of mashed potatoes, and the main course five ounces, that's one hundred and forty one
grams of turkey soy casserole. Riffey said, just go compare those labels to like an organic cat food label. Sometime you'll see that there are a lot nicer cat food products that a lot of prisoners would prefer to eat. But they're prisoners, right, And the argument that because prisoners have committed crimes that have warranted incarceration means they don't deserve anything but the food basics ignores a basic truth.
Bad food leads to unhealthy eaters. Unhealthy eating leads to health problems, and that leads to excessive health care costs. A Department of Justice study in twenty eleven to twenty twelve, the last year that the National Inmate Study was conducted, reported that seventy four percent of inmates in state and federal prisons and jails are overweight, obese, or morbidly obese. Health conditions that are tied to obesity include heart disease, stroke, diabetes,
and answer. A Prison Policy Initiative analysis found that quote correctional agencies spend almost six times more on healthcare than on food, and who pays for the incarcerated who must be treated for those types of diseases the taxpayers. So in the end, cutting cost corners by slapping down meals
lacking any nutritional value ends up costing everyone. The National Commission on Correctional health Care, in a report to Congress titled the Health Status of Soon to be Released Inmates, points out the wisdom and paying more attention to what
prisons are serving than what they're spending on food. The report said prisons and jails offer a unique opportunity to establish better disease control in the community by providing improved health care and disease prevention to inmates before they're released. That starts, advocates say, by putting better food on the tray. Today's episode was written by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Klang. Brainstuff is a production of iHeartRadio's House Stuff Works.
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