0:04

Hello, and welcome to short stuff, the shortest

0:06

stuff around. I'm

0:09

Josh, there's Chuck, there's Jerry over there,

0:12

and uh, this is short stuff in case

0:14

you didn't catch it the first time around. Right,

0:16

let's talk about prison food. Yeah,

0:18

let's so prison food. Saying

0:21

prison food is sort of like a joke, like an

0:23

airplane meal that someone

0:25

might use casually is to represent

0:27

really bad food. I think prisoners

0:29

would literally kill for an airplane

0:31

food a while.

0:35

But there are more than two million people incarcerated

0:37

in the United States, and that's a lot of people to

0:39

feed. Uh, and we're

0:41

not feeding them very well. And there

0:44

are groups out there that advocates

0:46

for prisoners who are on

0:48

the case and have been for a while trying to get better

0:51

food to prisoners. Uh. And this

0:53

woman Loretta Refit, who works for

0:56

she's a researcher for Prison

0:58

Voice Washington. Um, she makes

1:00

a good point. She's saying, listen, we're not

1:02

saying prisoners don't want fle mignon, they

1:04

don't want luxury foods. They just

1:07

want food that's food, real food,

1:10

real food, and that also isn't

1:12

like um, nutritionally deficit or

1:14

deficient, you know. And let's get

1:16

something out of the way. If you're like, well, they're prisoners,

1:19

Who cares if they have tasty

1:21

food or something like that, or something

1:23

that's not as high in sodium. Who cares?

1:25

They're in prison. They're not supposed to be coddled.

1:28

Um. There's actually really good answer to that, and

1:30

that is that if we

1:32

if we are taking care of prisoners in a certain

1:35

way in prison, and again there's two million

1:37

of them in in the United States alone, if

1:39

they're eating terribly over the course of

1:42

years, they're also developing the kinds

1:44

of chronic illnesses that come with eating

1:46

terribly for years, like UM,

1:48

heart disease and COPD

1:51

and just about everything you can think of diabetes,

1:54

UM. And then when they get out, they

1:57

need healthcare or they need healthcare

1:59

while they're in there too. And so whether

2:01

they're on government assisted healthcare on the outside

2:04

or prison healthcare on the inside, you

2:06

the guy who doesn't care whether they get good

2:08

food or not on the inside is paying

2:10

for that. And a really easy way

2:12

to get around that is for

2:15

them to just be served nutritious food to

2:17

begin with. It's way cheaper

2:19

than paying for healthcare on the back end. Yeah,

2:22

there was a study done in two thousand

2:24

twelve that reported that sevent inmates

2:27

and state and federal prisons and jails

2:29

are obese, overweight, obese,

2:31

or morbidly obese. UM.

2:34

And I guess it is easy to say, like why

2:37

give them good food? They are

2:39

in prison, we should give them gross tasting

2:41

food. But like you said, it's

2:43

not. It's one of these things like if you think

2:45

about the big picture, if one of your arguments is

2:48

tax dollars, tax dollars, why am I paying for

2:50

this? You're gonna be paying for more down

2:52

the line, So maybe give them

2:54

some fruits and vegetables every now and then or

2:57

on a daily basis, even like human beings.

2:59

And I mean, if you're talking tax

3:01

dollars and you're paying for their food, Like the

3:04

amount of money that's spent on prisoners,

3:06

if you look at it overall for the entire

3:08

nation, I can't find that data. By

3:10

the way, there's no there's no data

3:13

that says this is how much the US spends on food

3:15

for prisoners every year. There's nothing like that.

3:17

It's more by state, even

3:19

by jurisdiction. But I've seen something

3:21

between a dollar twenty

3:24

a day to about three dollars

3:26

a day per prisoner. The

3:28

average American eats on

3:30

about eight dollars and twelve cents a day,

3:33

So there's a very small amount

3:35

of money being spent on prisoner food,

3:38

which is one problem. But then the second

3:40

problem that seems to be evolving

3:42

over the years or has evolved recently, is

3:45

there used to be prison kitchens, Like the

3:47

food was prepared there in the

3:50

prison, and so that meant that the

3:52

prison could kind of cater more

3:54

toward inmates, um

3:56

than they can now where the

3:59

food preparation is almost exclusively

4:01

outsourced to companies like Era

4:04

Mark or in Washington, there's one called

4:06

UMU Corrections Institutions

4:09

Food uh, and

4:11

that's just a food service. So it's prepared off

4:13

site, and it's just gotten

4:16

really really bad, Like there's no such thing as

4:18

fresh food anymore. It's all reheated in

4:21

like a tray basically. All

4:23

right, well, let's come back in a minute. We'll talk a little bit more

4:25

about that and some of the other complications of

4:27

feeding two million incarcerated

4:30

individuals right after this. Alright,

4:48

so it is tough to feed that

4:50

many people and keep

4:53

expenses in check. I

4:55

think anyone will admit, you can't just have an

4:58

open check book and just a

5:00

it's been whatever it takes. UM. There

5:02

are budgets to keep in mind, and it's complicated

5:04

when you think about UM.

5:07

And this is something I don't think many people

5:09

think about, but dietary needs, dietary

5:11

restrictions UM

5:13

based on your own body

5:16

or religious grounds, whether it's kosher

5:19

or halal or gluten free. Like

5:21

I never thought about what if you're gluten or dairy

5:23

free and you're in prison, you probably

5:26

just go hungry a lot or live with

5:28

consistent intestinal distress,

5:30

which would really suck, you know, like that's

5:33

that's ah. I saw a quote it's like prisons

5:36

punishment enough, you know, like this doesn't

5:38

need to be heaped on top of it, something

5:40

like persistent intestinal distress.

5:42

You know. Yeah, I mean it's you're

5:45

certainly not making for UM

5:48

more obedient prisoners if someone is always

5:50

sick. No, but I did look up. I wondered

5:52

if there if there was a reason that UM

5:55

that prisons deprived

5:59

inmates nutrition going to lead to keep them

6:01

like docile, or if it

6:03

has the opposite effect. But apparently

6:05

one of the big UM,

6:07

one of the big problems, at least in Washington. But I

6:09

would suspect. It's probably nationwide.

6:12

Is a deficiency of protein.

6:15

There's just not enough protein and proteins

6:18

pretty important. It's one of the big ones that

6:20

you really need. Um. So there's

6:22

less protein. The protein that

6:25

is typically served to prisoners is

6:28

hyper processed. Um.

6:30

There's no fresh vegetables

6:32

or anything like that. It's all like pre

6:35

canned or cooked or frozen or something like

6:37

that. And it's heavy

6:41

in salt and sometimes sugar too.

6:43

Just basically the worst food you could possibly

6:46

eat, like like junk food

6:48

made from filler. Yeah.

6:50

And if you are if you do have

6:52

dietary restrictions and that have health

6:54

implications, like let's say you are gluten

6:56

free or have celiac, um,

7:00

it will just take whatever has gluten

7:02

off of your trade. They don't say like, well, how would you

7:04

like this instead, and you just get less

7:06

food. Um. That sucks,

7:08

man, Yeah, it does. There was And

7:11

you talked about how much they're spending Amrrico,

7:14

Pa County, Arizona is very famous for

7:17

Sheriff Joe and all the news

7:19

he makes. UM and apparently their Thanksgiving

7:22

meal. Um. There's a nonprofit journalism

7:24

group called the Marshall Project that works on criminal

7:27

justice issues. They did some investigating

7:29

and found that the Thanksgiving meal in Merrico, PA

7:32

County cost fifty six cents

7:34

per person. It was a cup

7:36

of carrots, a cup of mashed potatoes, and

7:39

then five ounces of turkey

7:41

soil, sorry, turkey soy

7:44

casserole. Turkey soil. Probably

7:47

not too far off, I agree. One

7:49

of the people who are with

7:52

one of the prison projects

7:54

said, if you look at a can of

7:57

organic cat food and

7:59

the label of the ingredients, and you

8:01

compare it to a lot of the food

8:03

that served in prisons, the organic

8:05

cat food is preferable to the prison

8:08

food, which is fairly

8:10

shameful. But what about the honey buns.

8:13

There's the honey buns. I also saw a recent

8:15

one about a type of potato chip

8:17

that is, um apparently so

8:20

good that prisoners go crazy

8:23

after they get out of prison because you can't

8:25

find it outside of prison. It's made specifically

8:27

for prisons. It's called the Whole Shebangs

8:31

and um. This company has caught on

8:33

recently that people really want this outside

8:35

of prison, so now they sell it on their website as

8:37

well. But it's really expensive

8:40

on their website. Um, but it's

8:42

just supposedly the greatest potato chips

8:44

you can you can never have. It's a combination

8:46

of salt and vinegar and barbecue flavor.

8:49

Well, but again, I mean I made the if you haven't

8:51

heard Our Prisons episode, that's the reference

8:53

to honey buns. Apparently that's a big

8:56

that have a lot of trade value. But um,

8:58

jokes aside, any buns and even the greatest

9:01

potato chips ever still junk food.

9:04

You know, Yeah, yeah, honey

9:06

buns and greatest potato chips ever definitely

9:08

still do qualify as junk food. Agreed.

9:11

Uh, And again you know it's uh.

9:13

And I know this is a divisive topic about

9:16

how people treat prisoners. There are a lot of people

9:18

think that they are pampered

9:21

and aren't you know they should all be in hard labor

9:23

camps eating junk food. But again,

9:25

if you really look at the big picture, and

9:27

if you're worried about your tax dollars and where they're going,

9:30

Um, you're spending a lot more on healthcare

9:33

by feeding them bad food than just

9:35

giving them some. And again,

9:37

they're not asking for filet mignon, but fruits

9:39

and vegetables, real proteins

9:41

that isn't just like a heaping of beans.

9:44

Yeah, just to put in real numbers.

9:46

The Prison Policy Initiative, which is a watchdog

9:49

group, they did a study and they found

9:51

that correctional facilities spend about

9:54

six times more on healthcare

9:57

than they do on food. And again,

9:59

if you just raise is the quality of food up,

10:01

it would definitely not be six

10:03

times more, you know, I

10:05

do know. Yeah, you got anything

10:07

else for this episode of short stuff, Chuck,

10:10

I got nothing else. I'm just gonna go sit down

10:12

and have some turkey ends and

10:15

soil, turkey soil protein. Yeah.

10:17

Turkey ends was one of the ingredients in Turkey Alla

10:19

King, which I tried to look up what that was, and the

10:22

only thing I could find that

10:24

wasn't you know the country

10:27

of turkey ends, blank um,

10:30

was that it's the ends of a

10:32

turkey roll, which

10:35

in and of itself doesn't sound like much of a turkey

10:37

anyway. Although I can't tell you a

10:39

turkey roll is really good, is

10:41

it? Oh? Yeah? The one

10:44

they come they're super frozen, solid

10:47

as a brick in a foil pan,

10:50

and you put the whole thing in the oven for like three

10:52

hours. But when it comes out, buddy,

10:56

salty, I bet it's

10:58

it's tasty, though you shouldn't need them very often.

11:01

As a matter of fact that I should probably not endorse it

11:03

at all. Well, at

11:05

any rate. That's the end of this short

11:07

stuff. Hope it changed your mind about things

11:11

until next time. Short Stuff out. Stuff

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you Should Know is a production of I Heeart Radios How

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