Nutraloaf so bad, prison inmates sue in a class action
A Vermont prison uses Nutraloaf — a combination of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes — as a means of punishment. It tastes so bad that it deters their inmates from misbehaving during mealtimes.
Inmates claim Nutraloaf is so foul, they would rather go hungry. So angered by this style of punishment, they have banded together in a class action suit. They want to bring change to the system, whereby anyone subjected to Nutraloaf should go through a formal disciplinary process first.
Nutraloaf and its equals have been traditionally used as punishment or a tool for behavior modification for many years in prisons around the US. Prison officials believe it prevents inmates from getting violent with their meals and throwing cutlery and plates at staff. In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a mixture used in Arkansas known as “‘grue’ might be tolerable for a few days and intolerably cruel for weeks or months.” Also, a federal judge ruled that the use of nutraloaf by the Michigan Department of Corrections was indeed punishment in 1988.
A Vermont prison officer 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.”
An attorney with Vermont’s Prisoner’s Rights office, Seth Lipschutz, recognized that the state has a legitimate interest in changing the behavior of inmates who have disciplinary problems, but declared Nutraloaf is still punishment.
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