UPDATE: Despite what report says, people in Pa. prisons don’t go hungry, corrections department says
The food served in Pennsylvania state prisons is contributing to the malnourishment of inmates, with meals failing to meet basic nutritional needs, leaving the vast majority of inmates hungry and predisposed to chronic illness as a result of the poor quality of food.
Those are among the findings contained in a report provided to PennLive by the Pennsylvania Prison Society, the largest prison monitoring organization in the commonwealth.
The year-long research into the quality of food in Department of Corrections facilities found that beyond being unappetizing, the meals failed to provide sufficient calories to meet standard dietary guidelines, meals contained twice the recommended amount of starchy vegetables and refined carbohydrates, and half the fruit and vegetable servings recommended by standard dietary guidelines.
The study found that menus at the state’s 23 prisons rely heavily on processed foods, and as a result, contribute to escalating rates of chronic illnesses among inmates, including high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma.
“The food that is being served exacerbates diet-related illness and safety issues because nutritional neglect is associated with misconduct,” said Claire Shubik-Richards, the Prison Society’s executive director. “It affects the dignity of inmates because being served human edible food is part of being a human being. Eating is central to the human experience.”
The year-long survey was conducted in collaboration with a dietician, who helped review menus and perform nutritional analysis of food; the organization also relied on hundreds of hours of interviews with inmates.
“The quality of the food is poor,” said Arielle Herman, the consulting dietician. “A lot of the food is prepared. It’s ultra processed food. There’s not a ton of fresh fruit or vegetables and there is a lot of canned foods.”
The findings, Shubik-Richards said, were troubling.
“The majority of people in Pennsylvania state custody go hungry every day,” she said. “The food they are served likely contributes to diet-related illness and poor families are put on the hook for paying for additional food for loved ones, if they don’t want their loved ones to go hungry every day.”
The survey was launched in the wake of increasing complaints from inmates during the pandemic, which ushered in changes to prison food service, most notably the policy that meals were no longer served in dining halls but taken directly to the inmates’ cells.
“The big thing that came to us during the pandemic was the number of people telling us they had to eat next to their toilets,” Shubik-Richards said.
That policy is still in place, with the exception of one prison, which has re-opened its dining hall.
Meals in most facilities are taken from the kitchen to housing units, and usually arrive cold, the survey found.
“The food is loaded into trays in the kitchen, put into insulated carts and wheeled the distance of a few city blocks,” Shubik-Richards said. “The food gets jostled around. It goes over a city block then it may sit there for however long it takes to get a staff person out.”
Under Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget, the Department of Corrections would receive $3.3 billion in funding. The department annually spends about $358 million on medical care; that budget has ballooned in recent years.
Moreover, in 1996, Pennsylvania spent $9 per person per day on food. Currently it spends $2.61 per person per day.
“It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Shubik-Richards said. “The department is focused on cost saving for food, not recognizing that skimping on food quality and leaving people hungry and malnourished is partially propelling the growth in its medical care budget.”
The DOC budget represents the second largest department expenditure for the state.
Corrections Secretary Laurel Harry in February said the department was in the middle of a menu refresh with a $3 million price tag. The department has added two registered dieticians to its staff to assist with the menu, she said.
Speaking at a state House budget hearing, Harry acknowledged the department staff is well aware of the wide concerns with food quality in prisons.
DOC has more than 10,600 inmates over 50, some with significant health issues. Harry said the department is looking to decrease sodium and carbohydrates, while increasing fiber, all within calorie ranges set by the National Dietary Guidelines.
The new menu was slated to be rolled out in March and included “bringing back some more popular items” and increasing portion sizes.
The secretary said the department considered the feedback from inmates.
“We put a lot of thought into this,” Harry said. ”We are pleased that we’re in a good spot with our food.”
In an interview with PennLive earlier this year, Harry noted that officials from the Prison Society had met with central office food service staff to discuss menu options. One topic discussed: inmate request lists for certain foods.
The prisons now have a new pizza option that Harry said she personally sampled and pronounced “very good.”
Department staff routinely carry out inspections and look at the food and portion size.
“These are all things that we monitor,” Harry said. “Our food service staff do audits of all of our operations or food service, culinary operations. So it’s not like we just say okay, here’s the menu and there’s no follow up.”
Harry said the majority of inmates post-pandemic indicated a desire to continue to eat in their cell units. Doing so takes up less time, and affords them other opportunities for programming and recreation.
“(A)n overwhelming majority wanted to continue in-cell feeding,” Harry said. “Now I’m sure there were folks that still wanted to go to a dining hall but we took their feedback into consideration. We surveyed our staff. We surveyed the unions, so it was a real collective effort. But at the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of all of those groups wanted to continue with in-cell feeding and so that’s what we went with.”
Time is a big consideration, she said.
At SCI Camp Hill, for example, sit down meals required several hours to serve the estimated 3,500 inmates.
“I mean it took quite some time,” said Harry, the former Camp Hill superintendent. “So feeding itself has certainly allowed us a little more flexibility with our operational schedule. So that’s probably something that’s changed positively.”
Harry said prison staff sends items back if they don’t meet the quality expected and removes items from contracts if necessary.
“So we have lots of processes in place to ensure that we are obviously providing the best that we can with regard to food services,” Harry said.
The Prison Society survey found that up to 70% of incarcerated people surveyed relied on the commissary to supplement their meals.
Those items include instant ramen, honey buns, and potato chips — all high in sodium, sugar and refined carbohydrates.
But an inmate’s purchasing power depends on their prison earnings or the generosity of family. Shubik-Richards noted that currently wages range between 23 cents and 50 cents an hour.
“A packet of snack mix is $2.50,” she said. “If you want packet of snack mix, that is three to six hours of labor. What that means for the majority of incarcerated people is that families on the outside are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep their loved ones fed. What that means is that poor people are getting poorer.”
She noted that what few healthy options the commissary might offer are typically sold out.
For former inmate Radee Hammett, the value of the food in prison still resonates, even 10 years after his release.
“The quality of the food was not the best,” he said. “It was basically whatever we got, you had to eat.”
Hammett served four years at the now-closed SCI Retreat in Luzerne County. He gained weight while in prison and saw his cholesterol levels shoot up.
He recalls some stomach-growling nights.
“There were times I did go to bed hungry,” Hammett said. “Waiting on the commissary money to come in....There were some nights I wasn’t satisfied as far as my nourishment needs. It does something to your mental. Not only are you locked up behind bars, in a cage, that’s already weary enough on your mind. Now another thing you are worried about is food. How is the food going to be? Is it beneficial for me? That is definitely demoralizing when you are getting fed like you are not a human.”
Shubik-Richards commended the department for its swift action in recent months to address the food situation. More broadly, she said everyone should care about the issue.
“If you care about public safety, you should care because hungry people are more irrational and violent,” she said. “If you care about safety in prison and the safety of corrections officers, you care because you get more violence when people are hungry all the time.”
Prison populations are predominantly brown and Black, and because of socio-economic factors, that fact alone disproportionately places undue burden on governmental services inside and outside of prison.
“If you care about human dignity, then you should care because food and eating a meal and having edible food is central to being a human being,” Shubik-Richards said.
Staff writer Jan Murphy contributed to this report.
Stories by Ivey DeJesus
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