http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080322/ap_on_re_us/food_or_punishmentWhen 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.
On Monday, 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.
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.
Vermont Assistant Attorney General Kurt Kuehl, who will argue the case for the Department of Corrections, said the use of nutraloaf isn't punishment. Instead, Kuehl said, it's as if a correctional officer were to find an inmate with a knife. He wouldn't have to hold a hearing to take the knife away. "It's taking an administrative action to protect the facility," said Kuehl.
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Nutraloaf sounds nasty, but the only thing inmates are being deprived of is good-tasting food. In my opinion, as long as it's not used as their diet for an extended period of time...say, a week or two at most, then I side with the prison on this one.
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