Eating Behind Bars

A shocking exposé of how food in prison is used as a form of hidden punishment, and a call to nourish our common humanityPrisons and jails are the nation’s lesser-known food deserts, where hunger and malnourishment exist alongside extreme levels of food waste, because much of what’s served is so unpalatable it ends up in the trash. Mealtime is also tense and humiliating when incarcerated people are sometimes forced to eat in silence, finish within minutes, and punished for sharing or swapping items on their tray. This disturbing portrait of eating behind bars came to light in 2020 when the nonprofit Impact Justice released the first-ever national examination of food in prison, catapulting the issue from the margins of prison litigation to the center of national conversations about mass incarceration and food justice. The result is this landmark book, about an unseen food crisis affecting millions of Americans. Rich in accessible graphics and compelling photography of actual prison meals, and with riveting testimonials from formerly incarcerated people, Eating Behind Bars documents the scarcity of fresh food in prison, high rates of diet-related disease and illness, the race to spend as little as possible, and other punishing aspects of food behind bars. The authors answer the crisis with meaningful solutions: “farm to tray” programs, Chefs In Prisons, vertical farms on the grounds of correctional facilities, and other ways of providing fresh, nourishing, and appealing food as an inherent human right—work that challenges the heartless machinery of mass incarceration overall.