Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison

Food is rarely discussed in conversations about mass incarceration, yet every meal served in America’s prisons reflects larger questions of dignity, health, punishment, and justice. Drawing on the groundbreaking Food in Prison Project at the nonprofit Impact Justice, ethnographer Leslie Soble and her collaborators examine how food has become an overlooked component of the carceral system. 

Combining research, firsthand accounts, and policy analysis, the authors document the realities of prison dining: inadequate nutrition, food waste, restrictive dining practices, and the ways meals are sometimes used as an additional form of punishment. At the same time, they highlight efforts by incarcerated people, chefs, advocates, and correctional institutions to rethink prison food through programs that emphasize nourishment, skill-building, and human dignity. 

Instead of treating food as a peripheral concern, Eating Behind Bars argues that what people eat while incarcerated is inseparable from broader questions of justice and rehabilitation. An important contribution to contemporary food studies, the book explores the intersection of public policy, food systems, and human rights.

Paperback. Graphs; maps; black-and-white and color photographs.