America seems presently fascinated by prison culture and the inner workings of what happens behind clinked doors. With TV shows creating binge-watchers of us all, and celebrities piquing public interest as they end up behind bars, Americans seem to enjoy a good gawk at prison life. Each year, more than 1.3 million visitors still trek out to Alcatraz Island, one of the most famous prisons in the world. And why shouldn’t they be curious about prison? We as a nation currently incarcerate more people per capita than any other country, and our prisons are notoriously rough, violent, and overcrowded. At the same time, we love our food, take pictures of it, post it socially, and discuss our foodie favorites. Rarely do we consider the food experiences of those for whom sustenance is more difficult to obtain, particularly those incarcerated, where choice and access is severely limited. Prison food is often everything to prisoners. It is the only marker of time throughout the day. Food becomes commerce in the microeconomies behind prison walls. It is often the only source of pleasure in a monotonous routine. It creates sites of community when prisoners ban together to create recipes, but also becomes a site of discord when issues surrounding fairness and equity arise in the chow hall. Prison Food in America offers a high-level snapshot of the fare offered behind bars, its general guidelines and regulations, fascinating stories about prisoners and food, and the remarkable and varied ways food plays a role in the fabric of prison culture.

Prison food has captured the popular imagination through its representation in movies, television series, and the news. Here, Erika Camplin discusses the realities of feeding the over 2 million Americans under lock and key. She discusses the business and delivery systems in place and various meals that are typically served.

A unique and edgy cookbook, Prison Ramen takes readers behind bars with more than 65 ramen recipes and stories of prison life from the inmate/cooks who devised them, including celebrities like Slash from Guns n’ Roses and the actor Shia LaBeouf. Instant ramen is a ubiquitous food, beloved by anyone looking for a cheap, tasty bite—including prisoners, who buy it at the commissary and use it as the building block for all sorts of meals. Think of this as a unique cookbook of ramen hacks. Here’s Ramen Goulash. Black Bean Ramen. Onion Tortilla Ramen Soup. The Jailhouse Hole Burrito. Orange Porkies—chili ramen plus white rice plus ½ bag of pork skins plus orange-flavored punch. Ramen Nuggets. Slash’s J-Walking Ramen (with scallions, Sriracha hot sauce, and minced pork). Coauthors Gustavo “Goose” Alvarez and Clifton Collins Jr. are childhood friends—one an ex-con, now free and living in Mexico, and the other a highly successful Hollywood character actor who’s enlisted friends and celebrities to contribute their recipes and stories. Forget flowery writing about precious, organic ingredients—these stories are a first-person, firsthand look inside prison life, a scared-straight reality to complement the offbeat recipes.

An enraging, necessary look at the private prison system, and a convincing clarion call for prison reform.” —NPR.org New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018 * One of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2018 * Winner of the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize * Winner of the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism * Winner of the 2019 RFK Book and Journalism Award * A New York Times Notable Book A ground-breaking and brave inside reckoning with the nexus of prison and profit in America: in one Louisiana prison and over the course of our country's history. In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-winning investigative journalist, he used his real name; there was no meaningful background check. Four months later, his employment came to an abrupt end. But he had seen enough, and in short order he wrote an exposé about his experiences that won a National Magazine Award and became the most-read feature in the history of the magazine Mother Jones. Still, there was much more that he needed to say. In American Prison, Bauer weaves a much deeper reckoning with his experiences together with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons in America from their origins in the decades before the Civil War. For, as he soon realized, we can't understand the cruelty of our current system and its place in the larger story of mass incarceration without understanding where it came from. Private prisons became entrenched in the South as part of a systemic effort to keep the African-American labor force in place in the aftermath of slavery, and the echoes of these shameful origins are with us still. The private prison system is deliberately unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to attract and retain a highly-trained prison staff. Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic dysfunction of their lives only adds to the prison's sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer finds himself becoming crueler and more aggressive the longer he works in the prison, and he is far from alone. A blistering indictment of the private prison system, and the powerful forces that drive it, American Prison is a necessary human document about the true face of justice in America.

“Ultimately, these aren't recipes you're likely to try at home ― though they might be just the thing when your refrigerator is bare.” ― NPR Books Simple recipes for a complex world. Here's what you get at the Commissary Kitchen: - Clean Hands Sweet Potato Pie - Spicy Seafood - Don’t Be Salty Chicken Ramen - Barbecue Salmon - Vegetarian Curry And a lot more. In the Fall of 2016, rapper Prodigy released his Commissary Kitchen cookbook as a long-awaited addendum to his critically acclaimed 2011 memoir My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy. Originally, Prodigy’s vision for Commissary Kitchen was to highlight the bare bones prison conditions to which inmates are subjected to and forcibly requiring a broad scope of ideas when it comes to the limited nutrition provided from food purchased within the commissary. The conversation was taken to Harvard, MIT, and Yale, with televised appearances on NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, TMZ, and a lengthy discussion with legendary radio personality Angie Martinez during the Barnes & Noble book launch, as well as a food truck at the renowned Smorgasburg. In My Infamous Life, Prodigy detailed his mindset and need for self-reflection while imprisoned, but took it a step further with Commissary Kitchen by using recipes to tell the stories of life in prison, as he grappled with staying healthy as a quiet sufferer of the SS Type of Sickle Cell Anemia, by far the most fatal. Prodigy surrendered to the disease in 2017, though much like his music, his impact lives on forever. As the world became entrenched in a global pandemic this book provides a glimpse of ways to survive under meager conditions. Once again Commissary Kitchen proves useful, as what was once a prison and college dormitory favorite can now be applied to most human lives in search of fun and moderately healthy recipes using well-preserved items like canned goods with simple appliances and utensils. From omelets to black bean curry, simple sauces and reductions, there’s plenty to pull from Commissary Kitchen as our current need is to stretch our food supply as far and most affordable as possible ―especially with escalating unemployment rates. Prodigy’s initial intent was to save lives, and here he’s doing it again. Commissary Kitchen is much more than a fun gift book; it’s an essential survival guide for these uncertain times. Rest In Peace, Prodigy.

This copiously illustrated book takes the lid off the real story of prison food. Including the full text of an original prison cookery manual compiled at Parkhurst Prison in 1902, it examines the history of prison catering from the Middle Ages (when prisoners were expected to pay for their own board and lodging whilst inside) through the Newgate of the Victorian age and on to the present day. With sections on prison life, punishments, the food on board transportation vessels and floating prison hulks, and the work of reformers such as John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, who vastly improved the conditions of those who were put behind bars, this evocative and unique book shows the reader exactly what 'doing porridge' entailed.

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.