Malnutrition in US Prisons - Essay Example

MALNUTRITION IN US PRISONS It is not unusual to hear the phrase “prison food” spoken with some tone of derision and equated with sloppy and bad food. While one could scarcely expect the meals provided for criminals serving their punishments to be gourmet, fancy or something to that effect, it is only natural and humane to think that they must be decent and nourishing at the least. This point is particularly significant with the growing claims that prison food is unhealthy. This paper will investigate this issue in detail. Budget and Dietary Information Per Meal Ideally, prison food should be healthy. The American penal system has adopted a dietary model in the past 30 years that is characterized by strict nutritional guidelines. This is mandated by the American Correctional Association in the form of sets of standards that is consisted of carefully planned diets, attention to preparation processes, posting of weekly menu so that the prisoners can decide whether to eat the scheduled meal, and provide special medical or religious diets (Rubin 2008, 168) All correctional facilities are required to comply, particularly, since it has been assumed that “healthy prisoners presumably would be productive workers, and starchy diets of 5,000 calories or more, coupled with minimal exercise would produce lethargic prisoners less likely to engage in violence” (168). Unfortunately, and especially in the recent years, these standards are no longer being met. The main cause for this is financial or budgetary constraints. By 2000, the average budget allotted to feed an inmate in a US prison is $2.42 per day (Smith 2007). Imagine how a correctional commissary would spend this meager amount to cover at least three meals in one day. A meal would have to make do with less than a dollar! According to the USDA, in a set of budgetary guidelines it has released called Thrifty Food Plan, the minimum amount required to provide a healthy meal is at least $4.35 per meal while in another guideline called the Liberal Food Plan, the agency pegged the appropriate healthy and well-balanced meal to cost $9.28 (US Senate 2007, 65). Certainly, food for the average citizen is expected to be different from incarcerated criminals, but if one considers the discrepancy in the actual budget per meal for prisoners to the minimum recommended cost in a healthy diet as prescribed by food and health authorities, one can really see the problem. There is no need for a deeper examination or an active imagination to conclude that food made from $.88 is unhealthy and insufficient for adults, even if they are languishing in jail with minimal physical exertion. What Constitutes Prison Food? Given the average cost that the government allocates for prisoners, the constitution of food that inmates eat has surely nothing much to brag about. A typical meal for Arizona prison inmates may include a sliver of a meat, some vegetables, three-quarters of a cup of starch, with salad, bread, beverage, and sometimes desert (Waite 2009). In Alabama, the situation is worse: For breakfast, prisoners received a serving of unsweetened grits or oatmeal, a slice of bread and half an egg or less. Lunch consisted of either two baloney sandwiches or two sandwiches with a dab of peanut butter, plus a small bag of corn chips. For dinner prisoners were served either chicken livers, meat patties or two hot dogs, either slaw or onions, beans or mixed vegetables, and a slice of bread. Each meal was accompanied by weak tea or an unsweetened beverage. (Reutter, Hunter and Sample 2011) With the above cases, it is clear that some prison facilities may have better or worse food provisions but the difference would be minimal considering the data on the amount of budget for food on all of the country’s jails. The budget involved and the sheer size of the prison population in a correctional facility can lead to low quality food that is poorly prepared. To demonstrate this point for instance, Goulding (2007) documented several prisoner accounts with regards to what they eat. In his investigations, one inmate answered why he won’t eat the meals prepared for him: Well, basically, it’s crap. It’s cooked days before you get it. It’s frozen and reheated, everything is cooked together and everything tastes the same… you only eat it if you run out of snacks in your cell (50). Another interviewee is more supportive of the previous description: The food in the blocks is no go. Noodles, sardines, tuna – things like that you can buy from the canteen. You usually buy that. The prison food is regothermic. That means it’s cooked at Canning Vale prison. Pre-cooked, frozen, defrosted, sent to us and heated up in regothermic trays… A sausage tastes the same as potato which tastes the same as cardboard (50). Mary Bosworth’s own work also described prison food in enlightening detail. She quoted a prisoner, for example, who wrote that “food in her prison does not meet the calcium intake needed by women, claiming that “they tend to feed us a lot of starches, sugar and salt, which can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity” (74). Effect on Prisoners Clearly, and as has been cited previously, the most significant impact of unhealthy food on prisoners is its adverse effect on health. In ordinary circumstance, it could lead to malnutrition and in its most extreme, it can be fatal. Unfortunately, insufficient nutritional content results to the retardation of physical and mental development. This is particularly significant when the differences in the nutritional needs of people come into play. For example, a pregnant prisoner or those engaged in hard physical labor require healthier and more nourishing diet. Picky eaters, borderline hyperemesis patients and those that are gestating, among other problematic prisoners, are especially at risk of malnutrition and diseases (Puisis 2006, 160). The table below demonstrates the seriousness of unhealthy food in American prisons. Here, digestive diseases, as per the Bureau of Justice Statistics report, are the leading causes of deaths among prison inmates (Clear, Cole and Reisig 2008, 363). This data should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers. The fact that the cause of deaths and many illnesses can be avoided by ensuring well balanced diet among inmates should already be a sufficient basis for prison reform now. Fig. 1: Leading Causes of Prisoner Deaths, 2001-2004 (Clear, Cole and Reisig, 363) In addition, it must be highlighted again, that the ultimate objective of most correctional facilities in the US is to reform criminal behavior. This is, in effect, endangered by the fact that prisoners are fed with food that is insufficient to drive a type of well-being that is conducive to such aims. Avoiding Malnutrition Currently, there are several ways by which administrators and the prisoners, on their own, avoid malnutrition. The most important of these is how inmates can purchase foodstuffs and a number of dietary products that are available in prison commissaries. According to Rubin (2008), many prisoners find it necessary, or at least preferable, to supplement their diet or even prepare their own meals in their cells with commissary items bought or purloined from the kitchen (168). Bosworth explained how the buying of foodstuffs and other items from the commissary works: An individual must have a commissary account… Friends and family members may send in postal orders to deposit funds in an inmate’s commissary account. Likewise, the prisoner may use wages earned from prison labor to deposit in the account (75). A downside of this approach to addressing the problem about unhealthy food is that prisoners without relatives, friends or money are being disadvantaged. With this example, the fact that food problems in correctional facility, unlike other aspects in prison conditions, certainly involve and require money. Otherwise, the obvious alternative is to significantly reduce the population of the inmates. This can be by either increasing the efficacy of law enforcement and other crime deterrent initiatives or through policies that would free more prisoners to decongest jails. In finding solutions, however, it must be underscored that food is a primary responsibility of the state. The conviction of criminal offenders does not excuse it or any of its agencies to use food or its control as part of the punishment. Generally, the American government is obligated to ensure food security and adequacy. This obligation is magnified a hundredfold in the case of the prisoners. It has no business incarcerating people if it has no ability to feed them. Conclusion Food, along with all the variable relating to the health and wellness of prisoners, is part of the responsibility of the state. Incarcerated individuals are being deprived of their freedom along with other rights that render them incapable of fending for themselves. This is in addition to the fact that food is necessary for survival and acceptable degree of well-being. It is sheer barbarism to say that bad and unhealthy food should part of their punishment as well. Having been convicted of crime does not deprive inmates of the right to live healthy and with dignity. Finally, following the line of thinking that prison is supposed to be a rehabilitative facility, health should be part of ensuring productive prisoners – a variable crucial in their reform. Ultimately, rehabilitation represents the noble objective of a compassionate and humane society. Unfortunately, this is defeated in the failure to provide a holistic rehabilitative environment when food – the most basic of human necessities – is not adequate and healthy. But how does one solve this kind of dilemma? The increasing number of prisoners in the American penal system is straining the institutional budget. There is no possible alternative, hence, than the additional budget allocation for correctional facilities. Or, as has been cited elsewhere in this paper, there should be an increase in law enforcement measures. But this move, in itself, would require additional costs as well. The government can harp about budget deficits and financial woes but these are not excuses to let prisoners go hungry, rot in malnutrition and die just because they cannot do something about it. References Bosworth, Mary. The U.S. federal prison system. London: SAGE, 2002. Clear, Todd, Cole, George, and Reisig, Michael. American Corrections. New York: Cengage Learning, 2008. Goulding, Dot. Recapturing freedom: issues relating to the release of long-term prisoners into the community. Hawkins Press, 2007. Puisis, Michael. Clinical practice in correctional medicine. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006. Reutter, David, Hunter, Gary and Sample, Brandon. "Appalling Prison and Jail Food Leaves Prisoners Hungry for Justice." Prison Legal News. 2011. Web. 5 May 2011. Rubin, Lawrence. Food for thought: essays on eating and culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Smith, Andrew. The Oxford companion to American food and drink. Oxford University Press. US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. The Role of federal food assistance programs in family economic security and nutrition. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 2007. Waite, Jennifer. “Prison Food: What Are Americas Inmates Eating? Find Out Where Your Tax Dollars Go.” Yahoo Content. 2009. Web. 5 May 2011. Read More