Hungry on the inside: Prison food as concrete and symbolic punishment in a women’s prison

Abstract

Women’s perceptions of the prison experience and the punishing dimensions of their confinement are under-examined. To expand knowledge in this area, Sexton’s theory of penal consciousness is used to analyze formerly incarcerated women’s narratives about prison food. This analysis builds understanding about the lived experience of incarceration by explicating one dimension of prisoners’ understandings and perceptions of punishment. Women’s narratives describe both concrete and symbolic punishments associated with food. Participants spoke about poorly designed, sloppy food systems that left them feeling uncared for, ignored, frustrated, and humiliated. Women articulate experiences of hunger that reflect both a deprivation of adequate food and a rationing of humane attentions. These punishing perceptions may inhibit the efforts of social service and health providers to engage incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women in care. In contrast, exceptional participant narratives about positive, non-punishing food experiences suggest that ameliorated food systems could improve the lived experience of incarceration and promote the engagement in services that is needed to improve the outcomes of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.

Consequences of mental and physical health for reentry and recidivism: Toward a health‐based model of desistance*

“…Houle (2014) found that incarceration increases body mass for men, with stronger effects for Blacks and those with lower education. This finding is not unexpected given the limited dietary options available to prisoners (Novisky, 2018;Smoyer & Lopes, 2017), the limited access to physical activity (Norman, 2017), and the proliferation of supremely restrictive housing units (Mears & Bales, 2009). Regarding nutrition, Smoyer and Lopes (2017) showed that prisoners are frustrated with the poor quality of prison food and linked it to the exacerbation of their medical conditions.…”

“…This finding is not unexpected given the limited dietary options available to prisoners (Novisky, 2018;Smoyer & Lopes, 2017), the limited access to physical activity (Norman, 2017), and the proliferation of supremely restrictive housing units (Mears & Bales, 2009). Regarding nutrition, Smoyer and Lopes (2017) showed that prisoners are frustrated with the poor quality of prison food and linked it to the exacerbation of their medical conditions. Recent findings from Novisky (2018) show us that older prisoners with medical conditions, such as diabetes, are subject to the same type of highly processed carbohydrate diets as everyone else in the prison.…”

More than Meals: A Narrative Criminological Analysis of Inmate‐Authored Cookbooks

“…Though a gap in the literature exists for examinations of prison cookbooks, scholars have made significant contributions to the field of incarceration and foodways (see Smoyer () for a comprehensive review), although no research approaches this intersection with a narrative criminology lens. Food in prison is a highly‐significant aspect of the punishment process (Einat and Davidian ; Gibson‐Light ; Godderis ; Higginbotham ; Jones ; Smoyer ; Smoyer and Lopes ; Ugelvik ; Vanhouche 2016). Experiences with food behind bars, whether in the cafeteria, at the commissary, ‘hustling’ or bartering ingredients, or while in‐cell cooking, wield influence upon relationships (de Graaf and Kilty ; Smoyer ), identity and performance (Earle and Phillips ; Godderis ; Minke ; Phillips ; Stearns ), status (Cate ; Smoyer ; Valentine and Longstaff ), and can be undertaken as symbolic resistance (de Graaf and Kilty ; Minke ; Smoyer ; Ugelvik ).…”

Producing food in English and Welsh prisons

“…Furthermore, within research and narratives of prison food about nutritional or dietary requirements, food habits or the meaning of food (e.g. Smoyer & Lopes, 2017), to-date there has been an emphasis on the consumption rather than production of prison food which this paper seeks to address.…”