Food Insecurity as a Weapon of the Carceral State

Food Insecurity as a Weapon of the Carceral State: Why Food Justice Requires Abolition 

I remember at the private PWI (Predominantly White Institution) I attended for my undergraduate degree students who complained about the dining hall food  would liken it to “prison food.” When upperclassmen would recount the horrors of my alma mater’s  previous food provider, Aramark, one of their biggest grudges was that the food company also had contracts with prisons. How dare mostly wealthy white students be fed the same food as disproportionately Black and brown inmates? While my former classmates had the right to complain about the food that has been served by an institution whose price tag is well over $50,000 and offers an all access meal plan that costs thousands of dollars per semester—no one deserves poor quality food, including incarcerated folks. Class, race, education level, and background does not make anyone more entitled to nutrition and wellness. Good-tasting, high quality food is a human right. Incarcerated folks don’t deserve to be fed bland, undercooked chicken in the same exact way that wealthy college students don’t either. 

It’s an unfortunate societal belief that folks behind bars don’t deserve much, including quality food options. The carceral state’s goal is to isolate, punish, dehumanize, and violently oppress marginalized communities. Withholding nutritious food is just one of the weapons the carceral state yields in accomplishing its goals. An investigation done by the advocacy group Impact Justice found that 94% of respondents from a national survey conducted among formerly incarcerated people did not get enough food to feel full. 75% responded that they were given spoiled food, sour milk, rotten meat, and other food that could make people ill. The issue is particularly harmful for pregnant women who could suffer complications, and their unborn babies could also suffer from health problems as a result of poor nutrition. The Prison Policy Initiative found that most states lack important policies on prenatal care and nutrition for pregnant women who are incarcerated, and even states that do have these proper policies in place leave too much room for lax regulation. 

These statistics only provide a glimpse into the way incarcerated folks are dehumanized through their access to food. The most important evidence comes from incarcerated folks themselves. In 2021 I worked with a DC-based group that advocates for and supports incarcerated folks from DC. I remember reading a letter from one of our members describing how a guard threw away his favorite fruit (the only part of his meal he enjoyed) just because he could. Access to enjoyable food is limited as a way for the carceral state and its actors to wield their power. This nutrition crisis doesn’t stop behind bars. President Clinton legislation in 1996 that established a lifetime ban on benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) for anyone convicted of a felony drug offense. Once incarcerated folks return to their communities, themselves and their families are more likely to suffer from food insecurity. One of the ways in which prisons have attempted to combat prison food insecurities has been through prison community gardens. Many of these community gardens have been implemented  in state prisons through partnerships with nonprofit organizations like Insight Garden Program. 

Community gardening programs in prisons have proven to be effective in some ways on an individual level. In her research, Rachel Jenkins (2016) found that there were generally higher rates of self-efficacy and self-worth associated with prison gardening programs as inmates were able to work with their hands and feel connected to the earth. Despite some of the individual benefits that prison gardens may offer, prison community gardens ultimately perpetuate the violence and inequalities created by prisons. The violent and punitive nature of the carceral system is what leads to food inequalities in prisons to begin with, so the solution to these issues will not be found in that very system. The solution will only come with the abolition of the carceral system.  

Many programs, including the Insight Garden Program, fail to critique the larger prison system which is what creates food inequalities behind bars. Evan Hazelett (2021) found through interviews with people involved with some of the prison garden programs that prisons will use their garden programs as positive PR to distract from issues within their prisons, like poor quality of food.  Ultimately, the goal of prisons in the U.S. is to harshly punish people and strip them of their agency. Unfortunately, because prison gardens work within the confines of prison rules and regulations, they also constrain the agency of inmates. For example, participants in the prison gardening programs cannot even eat the food they grow because of contracts that prisons have with private food prisoners (Hazelett 2021).  

Inmates in prison have no control over what they can eat which directly contributes to poor health outcomes, and prison gardens do not solve this major issue. The food they grow goes to local communities, but the incarcerated individuals growing the food receive no compensation (Hazelett 2021). This perpetuates racial capitalism in that many inmates are Black and brown and because they are in an environment where the state and prison has complete control over them, they are forced to engage in cheap or free labor, all while benefiting the prison system. Prison gardening programs perpetuate notions that blame lies mainly on individuals for their imprisonment and therefore individual hard work in the garden can pull them out of their circumstances (Hazelett 2021). 

Abolition is the only true solution to combating the issues of food insecurities stemming from carcerality. There are steps to be taken that will center the self-determination and agency of inmates in terms of their relationships with food in prisons as we work towards abolition. The Maryland Food and Prison Abolition Project provides great recommendations and organizations with their abolitionist approach to food justice should be supported. Prisons can divest from food service corporations which have historically provided low-quality food and that do not allow for inmates to grow and eat their own foods. Free and cheap prison labor in agricultural practices, including in agriculture that is donated to food banks and the community should be abolished. Inmates should also be given agency in their food and eating habits, including self-serve and self-cooking stations, seat choice during meal time, and communal cooking.  

Lastly, because community gardens are shown to have individual benefits and healing properties, existing gardens in communities can be used as sites for transformative justice. Existing community gardens can be used for sites where those who have been involved in harm come together to grow. The community can use the site as a space to hold one another accountable outside of the prison system, while also growing food that is nutritious and educating the community on gardening. The only way towards food justice and ensuring our communities are properly nurtured in all aspects is abolition.