Mystery meat and maggot-infested produce: the disturbing reality of US prison food

"At best you get mystery meat. Or sour-smelling heaps of macaroni. In the worst cases, it's undercooked chicken, spoiled milk and maggot-infested produce. In prisons and jails across the US, people are routinely fed unhealthy, tasteless or inedible meals. Many are left hungry and malnourished, with devastating long-term health consequences. The hidden crisis affecting millions of incarcerated people is the subject of Eating Behind Bars,"

"The book lays out the gastronomic cruelty and culinary malpractice inside prisons, where residents subsist barely on carb-heavy, ultraprocessed foods. Portions are just enough to keep you alive. The book is based on surveys of hundreds of formerly incarcerated people and their families, in-depth interviews, in-prison focus groups and testimony from officials and activists. Some may see this as a niche issue or a case of liberals wanting to provide incarcerated people with gourmet meals."

People in prisons and jails across the United States regularly receive unhealthy, tasteless, and sometimes inedible meals, including mystery meat, sour-smelling macaroni, undercooked chicken, spoiled milk, and maggot-infested produce. Institutional kitchens are often infested with roaches and rats, and guard animals sometimes receive better food than residents. Portions are carb-heavy, ultraprocessed, and only sufficient to sustain life, leaving many hungry and malnourished with lasting health consequences. Surveys, interviews, in-prison focus groups, and official testimony document these conditions. The crisis intersects with labor rights because kitchen workers earn pennies per hour, and it poses broader public health risks.

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