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An Anonymous Coward suggests the following story: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/asa-rns081616.php
Ramen noodles are supplanting the once popular cigarettes as a form of currency among state prisoners, but not in response to bans on tobacco products within prison systems, finds a new study.
Instead, study author Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona School of Sociology, found that inmates are trying to figure out ways to better feed themselves as certain prison services are being defunded.
[...] "Prison staff members as well as members of the inmate population provided narratives of the history of changes in prison food -- the past few decades have seen steady decreases in the quality and quantity of inmate food," Gibson-Light said.
"Prisoners are so unhappy with the quality and quantity of prison food that they receive that they have begun relying on ramen noodles -- a cheap, durable food product -- as a form of money in the underground economy," he said. "Because it is cheap, tasty, and rich in calories, ramen has become so valuable that it is used to exchange for other goods."
Those other goods include other food items, clothing, hygiene products, and even services, such as laundry and bunk cleaning, Gibson-Light said. Others use ramen noodles as bargaining chips in gambling when playing card games or participating in football pools, he said.
[...] "Throughout the nation, we can observe prison cost-cutting and cost-shifting as well as changes in the informal economic practices of inmates," he said. "Services are cut back and many costs are passed on to inmates in an effort to respond to calls to remain both tough on crime and cost effective."
The US authorities and most citizens prefer a punitive instead of a rehabilitative approach, despite the fact that most prisoners are eventually let out of prison alive.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by butthurt on Thursday August 25 2016, @12:19AM
If ramen is valued in the way this press release says, it implies to me that prisoners are hungry. That suggests that the food provided to them may be inadequate in its amount, kind, quality or timing. A Guardian op-ed [theguardian.com] says that prisoners aren't wasting away, but are given "high calorie and low satiety" foods.
Is hunger commonly perceived as concomitant to imprisonment? If prisoners routinely go hungry, the public--at any rate, those who perform jury duty--should know about it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Thursday August 25 2016, @03:10AM
No, it implies they need a currency. They can't get tobacco, the old currency. They can't get money. Ramen is cheap, is worth a small enough amount of $$$ to make it worth trading for, and easy to get, as long as you have money from an outside source or a prison job making maybe $0.10/hr. If they're hungry they'll eat the Ramen. If they have enough currency to buy the Ramen to trade with, others get to eat in return for favors.
Ever since I was a kid some 50 years ago I've been told that the only good thing about prison food is there isn't enough of it. As in, it's so bad nobody wants to eat it.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.