The prison service is responsible for providing food and water to the people who are incarcerated. However, the food which is provided is rarely satisfying, in quality or in quantity.
The likelihood of having some say in meals varies from country to country and from prison to prison: meals may be eaten together in a cafeteria, trays may be distributed to the cells, or prisoners may have access to common areas to cook.
In the Congo, in the country’s primary prisons, only one meal is served per day. The prisons lack funds. Some purchase provisions on credit. In Lebanon, the number of meals has been reduced from three to two a day, due to the crisis.
Visits from people on the outside are sometimes the only way to procure certain products, to have enough to eat, or to improve daily life. In Latin America, families support the needs of incarcerated friends and relatives by bringing food packages. This practice is prohibited in France, except during the Christmas season, when one 5 kg package is allowed. The contents are rigorously inspected.
Prisoners are exposed to shortages, natural disasters and famines. In emergency situations, they do not have priority status, and they pay a high price in conflicts. In Haiti, Madagascar, Thailand, and Mali, international organisations offer food assistance to help prevent malnutrition.
In a number of countries, prisons offer a “commissary” system, a sort of store that allows prisoners to purchase supplies. The list of available products is limited and the price is sometimes far higher than on the outside.
Cooking in prison helps pass the time and improve upon the usual. It is estimated that 60-70% of the trays distributed in France are not consumed as is, but rather serve as a starting point for other recipes.
Prisoners must improvise to compensate for the lack of an oven, gas burners, and for the rarity or prohibition of certain products.
For example, yeast, which enables the fermentation of liquids and fabrication of alcohol, is prohibited. Prisoners activate their resourcefulness, making an egg beater out of a fan by attaching two forks or using a “sandwich” of hot plates as an oven.
Depriving prisoners of food or water as punishment is forbidden. Widespread in the past, this practice is now becoming rare. Not responding to the essential needs of incarcerated persons constitutes a form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or even torture.
