A year-long survey found that cost-cutting had resulted in a steep decline in the quantity and quality of food served in prisons, making instant ramen a more valuable commodity than tobacco, The Guardian reports.
Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona’s school of sociology, “interviewed close to 60 inmates over the course of a year at one state prison as part of a wider study on prison labor. He did not identify the prison to protect the confidentiality of the inmates,” the paper said. “He found that the instant soup has surpassed tobacco as the most prized currency at the prison. He also analyzed other nationwide investigations that he says found a trend towards using ramen noodles in exchanges.”
After the private company that handled food prep at the prison changed, as part of a cost-cutting measure, inmates “went from receiving three hot meals a day to two hot meals and one cold lunch during the week, and only two meals for the whole day on the weekend.”
A package of ramen cost 59 cents at the prison commissary, The Guardian said, and two packages could be traded for “a sweatshirt – worth $10.81.” Ramen also was traded fresh vegetables “stolen from the kitchen,” and inmates would gamble with it and use it to pay other inmates for cleaning their bunks or doing their laundry.