Eating Behind Bars - by Leslie Soble & Alex Busansky & Aishatu R Yusuf & Impact Justice (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"This eye-opening book will convince you that everyone--absolutely everyone--is deserving of nourishing food that affirms their humanity and dignity."--José Andrés, chef and humanitarian

Prisons and jails are America's hidden "food deserts," where hunger and malnourishment coexist with shocking levels of food waste because much of what is served is so awful it ends up in the trash. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are tense and humiliating when incarcerated people are forced to eat in silence, finish meals within minutes, and disciplined with food deliberately worse than the standard fare.

This disturbing portrait came to light in 2020 when the nonprofit Impact Justice released the first-ever national examination of food in prison, catapulting the issue from the margins of prison litigation to the center of national conversations about mass incarceration and food justice. This landmark book digs deeper, revealing a systemic drive to cut costs at the expense of health and decency. It is also a story of resistance and hope, chronicling how incarcerated people and their allies are fighting back, as well as exploring "farm to tray" programs, chef-led initiatives, and other ways to make food in prison a source of healing and bring dignity back to the table.

Review Quotes

"In a nation obsessed with food and health, Eating Behind Bars asks us to consider what it's like to have no choice in what you eat and be dependent on foods known to be unhealthy. This portal to a world out of sight also suggests how to create a common table big enough for all of us."

-- Mark Bittman, award-winning author of How to Cook Everything

"Leslie Soble dares to expose the truth I once lived: That in prison, food is punishment. Eating Behind Bars documents the cruelty baked into every tray and the workings of a system that starves body and soul, robbing people of their humanity. This alone would be worthy of our attention, but the book goes further to show how farm-to-tray programs and other common-sense reforms are nothing short of acts of liberation."

-- Susan Burton, author and founder of A New Way of Life

"This is no lie: I had my first mango when I was nineteen years old and in solitary confinement at Sussex 1 State Prison. I didn't even know what the fragrant, delicious fruit was until five years later, when I was home. For those five years, I would sometimes think of that mango, like everyone else inside, craving fresh vegetables, fruit--a real meal. Eating Behind Bars isn't just about how bad things are. It's about how good things should be and how we might get there--and it's a reminder that in a just world, that mango wouldn't have felt like a miracle. It would've been expected."

-- Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet, lawyer, MacArthur fellow, and executive director of Freedom Reads

"Prison can be a setting for rehabilitation or a factory for producing more crime. Almost everyone behind bars now will someday return to society. Brutalizing them only leads to more brutality. As this excellent book demonstrates, feeding incarcerated people well, showing concern for their physical and mental health, teaching them how to farm and cook and prepare food can make a real difference. Free or unfree, we are what we eat."

-- Eric Schlosser, journalist and author of Fast Food Nation

"It's harder to ignore a problem when you understand it. Documenting the experience of eating behind bars shows how the food that's made and eaten every day by two million people who depend on it is far from okay. This knowledge is the beginning of a better path forward."

-- Dan Giusti, chef and founder/CEO of Brigaid

About the Author

An ethnographer and folklorist, Leslie Soble manages the Food in Prison project at Impact Justice.

Alex Busansky is president and founder at Impact Justice.