Lorain/Elyria, OH
Cruel and unusual? Court to rule on prison veggie loaf
Print this story
Read comments and discuss this story
MONTPELIER, Vt. — When shooting suspect Christopher Williams acted up in prison, he was given nutraloaf — a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes.
Prison officials call it a complete meal. Inmates say it’s so awful they’d rather go hungry.
This week, the Vermont Supreme Court will hear arguments in a class-action suit brought by inmates who say it’s not food but punishment, and that anyone subjected to it should get a formal disciplinary process first.
Prison officials see nutraloaf as a tool for behavior modification.
“It’s commonplace in other states as a way of providing nutrition in a mechanism that dissuades inmates from throwing feces, urine, trays and silverware,” said Vermont Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann.
“It tends to have the desired outcome,” Hofmann said. “Once the offender relents, we stop with the nutraloaf. That’s our goal, to protect our staff and not have them subjected to behavior that the average Vermonter would find incomprehensible.”
Seth Lipschutz, an attorney with Vermont’s Prisoner’s Rights office, says the state has a legitimate interest in changing the behavior of inmates who misbehave.
But he says a diet of nutraloaf is punishment, plain and simple. To call it anything else is “playing with words to get what they want. It’s wrong and it’s sad,” Lipschutz said.
“If it’s punishment, you’ve got to follow the rules,” Lipschutz said. “Even in prison you get a little bit of due process.”
Even Hofmann doesn’t care for the taste of the stuff.
“It reminded me of eating my vegetables and I’m not necessarily a big fan of vegetables,” he said.
Nutraloaf and its equivalents have been used for decades in prisons across the country. In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a concoction used in Arkansas known as “ ‘grue’ might be tolerable for a few days and intolerably cruel for weeks or months.”
A federal judge ruled in 1988 that the use of nutraloaf by the Michigan Department of Corrections was punishment.
Now, Michigan inmates are only given nutraloaf after going through the disciplinary process that lands them in segregation, department spokesman Russ Marlan said.
“It’s done very infrequently, but it seems to accomplish its goal of preventing prisoners from using or abusing food or their containers in a way that could adversely affect our staff,” Marlan said.
Print this story
Report an innappropriate comment
In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement
and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered,
click here.
If you are registered, click here to log in.
Need help? Email Us.
It might be unusual but nor cruel. For all those inmates who are complaining it is awful - You should have thought about that before you did something more awful that landed you in Jail. How does it feel to be on the other side of the fence..huh???
(Report comment)
You gotta figure if they throw feces, they should eat it too. Monkeys thats all they are
(Report comment)
They are getting a balance loaf, that will allow them to live, however if they don’t want the “special loaf” they shouldn’t have broken the law and should be grateful that the state doesn’t make the family pay for they food and keep. So sit down, shut up, and EAT, then go back to your cell.
(Report comment)
I think that personally it’s wrong. Ya, if they did somethiing wrong that they can punish them but not in that kind of way. The inmates already recieve their food cold, now the loaf? That’s ridiculous
(Report comment)
They’re still humans
(Report comment)
Send them all to Maricopa County, Arizona. Let Sheriff Joe have a go at ‘em!
(Report comment)
Nosno4me - Sheriff Joe is an American hero for not coddling lawbreakers. They’d really be crying there!Prisoners are always whining about something, but never over what they did to put themselves in jail. Even churches don’t have as many innocent people as the correctional system does. These prisoners are diverting blame (always do) toward the jails instead of themselves. They wouldn’t be eating Nutraloaf if they didn’t do something to deserve it. They chose to break the rules and will pay for it. The ingredients of these loaves have all the necessary nutrients to maintain health. It’s my opinion all meals should be served in this way.
(Report comment)