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Monday, December 21st, 2015

No More ‘Cruel and Unusual’ Food for New York State Prisoners

Author:     Rebecca McCray
Source:     Nation of Change
Publication Date:     December 20, 2015
 Link: No More ‘Cruel and Unusual’ Food for New York State Prisoners
Stephan:   The American Gulag is a system of shame. Solitary confinement, grotesque overcrowding, poor medical care, and did I mention the food. Imagine you lived on this, in a cement box 6 by 8 feet. You were there 23 hours a day, it was very noisy, and the lights were bright 24/7. How long would you be sane? We have five per cent of the world's population, and 25 per cent of its prisoners, overwhelmingly men and women of color, and we treat all of them badly.
Nutraloaf prison food.

Nutraloaf prison food.

Its ingredients vary by state. Some include beans, others add raisins; dehydrated potato flakes occasionally find their way into the dreaded prison dish. But one thing remains constant: No one wants to eat Nutraloaf.

Now, thanks to a raft of reforms made to New York state’s solitary confinement policy as part of a lawsuit settlement, prisons will no longer be serve the bland loaf. Sometimes referred to as “disciplinary loaf,” Nutraloaf is served as a culinary punishment for prisoners who misbehave, according to experts involved in the lawsuit.

“I would taste it and just throw it away,” George Eng told The New York Times. Eng served 36 years for murder and spent time in solitary confinement. “You’d rather be without food than eat that.”

The settlement won Wednesday in Peoples v. Fischer by the New York chapter of the ACLU dictates that the corrections department “will replace the loaf…with a nutritious, calorie-sufficient, and palatable alternative meal composed of regular food items that can be safely delivered to and eaten […]

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