A new book has laid bare the disturbing reality of food within American correctional facilities, describing a system of "gastronomic cruelty" where meals are used as a tool of punishment. Eating Behind Bars offers a nauseating account of maggot-infested produce, rotten meat, and a diet so poor it inflicts devastating long-term health consequences on millions of incarcerated people.
The Reality on the Tray: From Mystery Meat to Maggots
The book, authored by Washington DC-based ethnographer Leslie Soble and her colleagues at the non-profit Impact Justice, paints a grim picture of the average prison meal. Residents are forced to subsist on carb-heavy, ultra-processed foods designed merely to keep them alive, not to nourish them.
Typical offerings include "mystery meat", sour-smelling macaroni, and baloney sandwiches. Fresh fruit and vegetables are scarce, replaced by wilted lettuce or chemically fortified drinks that many refuse to consume. The research, based on surveys and interviews with hundreds of formerly incarcerated individuals, also uncovered frequent contamination.
"I’ve heard of people finding a rat tail, roaches or metal in their food, or getting curdled milk with chunks," Soble told The Guardian. In the worst instances, people are served undercooked chicken, spoiled milk, and produce crawling with maggots.
Food as Punishment and a Public Health Catastrophe
The crisis extends far beyond poor taste. Soble argues that the prison food system constitutes an additional, unspoken sentence. Individuals often enter prison in one state of health and leave with exacerbated or new conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, with estimates suggesting each year behind bars reduces life expectancy by two years.
Food is also weaponised through strict rules. Sharing items or taking a piece of fruit back to a cell can result in a write-up or even solitary confinement. Meanwhile, many incarcerated people work in prison kitchens or agricultural programmes for pennies an hour—or for no pay at all—producing food they are forbidden from eating, which is instead sold for state profit.
"They’re growing healthy, fresh food that could nourish them, but they could be sent to solitary for just grabbing a handful of tomatoes," Soble explained, describing labour conditions reminiscent of historical plantations.
Pathways to Reform and a Glimmer of Hope
Despite the bleak landscape, the book highlights activist movements and pilot programmes demonstrating that change is possible. Successful campaigns, often led by formerly incarcerated people or their families, frame reform in practical terms like reducing future healthcare and security costs.
One promising initiative is the Harvest of the Month programme run by Impact Justice in partnership with the University of California and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It brings fresh, local produce like strawberries, avocados, and lemons into facilities.
The impact is profound yet simple. One man cried upon seeing a strawberry for the first time in 17 years, while others used lemons to creatively flavour water or soup. Soble points to countries like Iceland and Norway as models of more humane practice, but notes significant barriers in the US, including mass incarceration and deep-seated attitudes towards those imprisoned.
"If we started from a place of saying they are community members... who deserve care, then policy and funding would look different," she concluded. The book serves as a compelling indictment, urging a fundamental rethink of how the justice system feeds—and fails—those in its care.
