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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 24 2016, @11:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the nom-nom-nom dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by ncc74656 on Thursday August 25 2016, @12:47AM

    by ncc74656 (4917) on Thursday August 25 2016, @12:47AM (#392834) Homepage

    Why are we warehousing humans instead of helping them develop acceptable-to-the-outside-world practices?

    If they were capable of "develop[ing] acceptable-to-the-outside-world practices," they wouldn't have wound up in prison in the first place. Having already demonstrated their lack of fitness to live among civilized people, what would you propose that we do with them? Killing them would put them out of our misery permanently, but I suspect that you would also be against that approach...so where does that leave us?

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday August 25 2016, @01:39AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday August 25 2016, @01:39AM (#392847) Journal

    Put them to work. Let them (voluntarily) farm vegetables and cannabis on the prison grounds. A small portion of the weed or profits goes to the prisoners (which they might be spending at the canteen or on phone calls), and the rest gets sold in state-run dispensaries or wholesale to independent dispensaries. Teach prisoners the intricacies of farming, and make sure they have a chance to obtain some kind of agricultural degree/certification by the time they get out.

    Prison farms [google.com] are not a new concept. Growing high-value cannabis at a prison would be, and would be a great way for the states to solidify the benefits of legalization.

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