Prison Foods in America
Meals in jail are likely to be a far cry from the delicious dishes most people enjoy regularly. In the US, it's quite interesting to see how jail food varies from state to state, how it has evolved as time has gone on, and how prisoners rise to the occasion to come up with creative solutions. With that in mind, here are 20 different meals that are served at US jails.
1. Gordon County, Georgia
Let’s start by taking a look at a modern jailhouse meal. For breakfast in Gordon County, inmates are served a small portion of canned fruit, a cup of cold cereal with milk, a cup of coffee, and biscuits smothered in country gravy. While they do get dinner, they often go without lunch due to budgeting.
2. The 1920s
Let's turn back the clock a bit and take a look at what prisoners were eating long before. With a confined budget of 10 cents per meal, prisoners got hardtack and soup. This bread was so tough that it hurt their teeth to eat. The watery soup was supposed to help soften it up.
3. Jailhouse Tamales
In jail, sometimes prisoners make their own kind of tamales with a mixture of crushed Fritos and spicy Cheetos. The inmates pour the chips in with hot water, which creates a thick mash. They then stuff the chip bag with the mash and shape it to look tamale-like. After a few minutes of sitting, they take the bag off and pour on hot sauce.
Jarritos Mexican Soda on Unsplash
4. Butte-Silver Bow County, Montana
In the state of Montana, prisoners get breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For lunch, one meal consists of 1 slice of apple cobbler, a cup of milk and margarine, 1 cup of coffee, half a cup of green beans, and 1 whole slice of bread. But it doesn’t end there, as lunch also includes half a cup of mashed potatoes and some roast turkey.
5. The Spread
"The Spread" is a prison macaroni and cheese or casserole-like concoction made from whatever ingredients are available. Leftover or not-fresh ramen noodles are mixed with spices, canned tuna, hot sauce, salsa, Doritos, or flavored popcorn. Hot water is then added to cook it, and it is consumed with a spoon off of newspaper.
6. Maricopa County, Arizona
Of course, prisoners do get something slightly special for the holidays. For instance, on Thanksgiving they get 1 cup of glazed carrots, a tiny piece of brownie, half a cup of fruit, some mashed potatoes, turkey casserole, and, of course, a piece of margarine.
7. Prison Lattes
Inmates can create a similar homemade concoction to coffee, often referred to as a "prison latte." By placing a carton of milk beneath steaming hot water, then stirring in three teaspoons of instant coffee and a packet of maple syrup, inmates can concoct a warm, sweetened coffee beverage.
8. The 1930s
Going back to the past for a bit, in the 1930s, prisoners had an even smaller budget to work with at 6 cents per meal. So what they got was bread smeared with lard, and that was about it. For drinking, plain old water.
9. Pad Thai
Prisoners have even gone as far as to make a basic version of Pad Thai. This involves cooking ramen noodles alongside peanut butter, then to top it off, some hot sauce.
10. The 1940s
Returning to old-school prisons, in the 1940s prisons took a page out of military systems. While the budget increased a bit, most prisoners were eating out of cans. This included stuff like spam and peas.
11. Morgan County, Alabama
This might be some of the saddest meals around, as there's barely anything on offer. For instance, lunch is two baloney sandwiches with a dab of peanut butter, and with it, a bag of corn chips like Fritos.
tracyshaun from San Rafael, CA, USA on Wikimedia
12. The 1950s
In the 1950s, prisoner budgets had increased significantly. Now prisoners were eating instant mashed potatoes and gravy. However, this was very watered-down gravy. The portion sizes and calories still left many wanting.
13. Prison Pizza
The main ingredient of a fake pizza is a combination of crushed ramen noodles and crackers. They will make the crust by mixing these ingredients with hot water, forming a circular shape, and adding cheese spread, summer sausage, or salsa as the pizza toppings.
14. Fried Chicken
There have been documented instances of prisoners creating fried chicken by wiring a heating element into a plastic trashcan. The chicken itself is either stolen from the kitchen or traded from another inmate.
15. The 1980s
Skipping ahead in time, inmates began seeing meals that are very similar to modern times. A typical meal consisted of a tiny portion of rice, beans, watery gravy, and a slice of plain bread.
16. No-Bake Cheesecake
In prison, inmates can make a no-bake cheesecake from graham crackers, lemon juice, and vanilla pudding mix. Stolen margarine and coffee creamer are sometimes added to thicken and flavor the filling.
17. Correctional Cakes
By using only Oreos, peanut butter, and M&Ms, inmates can make a "Correctional Cake." The cookie part of the Oreos is crushed and then mixed with water to create layers for the cake. The filling of the Oreo and peanut butter acts as icing. Then, the M&Ms are placed on top as decoration.
18. Flavored Water
Sometimes, inmates make flavored water by using the seasoning packets that come with ramen noodles in place of the noodles. They can do this with any kind of ramen, which makes for infinite flavor combinations, but the taste is often dubious.
19. Crabapple Jelly
Convicts can produce crabapple jelly from trees on the prison grounds. Using common kitchen equipment, the crabapples are stewed down into a sweet, spreadable concoction.
20. The 2000s
Let's go back in time just a little to see what prisoners were eating only 20 or so years ago. By this point, inmates were allowed to cook in the kitchen. This was where creative dishes got their start, with one of the most iconic meals of the era being the jailhouse burrito, which was made of Cheetos and ramen.
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