— by Virginia Avniel Spatz, volunteer researcher for Matir Asurim. posted 2024/2/4
Food justice for incarcerated people has been a long-standing problem, across the US and Canada, in federal, state/provincial, and local facilities. Kashrut adds another set of challenges, which have been the subject of litigation over many years and continue to affect incarcerated members of Matir Asurim. This report is one step in gathering resources about current food conditions, particularly for incarcerated individuals attempting to maintain kosher diet. These resources are intended to provide useful links for anyone working on prison food justice and to inform readers unfamiliar with the issues. Matir Asurim is still in the information gathering stage of network-wide work on this issue.
Additional data will be much appreciated. We need your help!
For those with direct experience of kosher eating while incarcerated or visiting incarcerated individuals, we can use your expertise! Have you or your organization succeeded in changing legislation or implementation around kosher food for one person, a facility, or a whole state/province? Please send personal experiences, legal details, and advocacy results to the author (ethreporter at gmail).
Caution: most of the reports cited below contain some disturbing details about food and its delivery (which may not mix well with meals or a queasy stomach).
Food Justice Reporting: General and Aramark-Specific
There has been substantial coverage on this issue in specialized news outlets, like Prison Legal News, and through more general sources, including The New York Times, Public Broadcasting System (US), and CBC/Radio-Canada. Independent organizations have been researching conditions: See, e.g., the 2020 Eating Behind Bars report from Impact Justice, the ACLU’s “Two Cups of Broth and Rotting Sandwiches,” and the 2023 “We’re Hungry in Here” from DC Greens/Don’t Mute My Health. In addition, there are scholarly approaches, for example: National Library of Medicine on prison nutrition (Canada) and on nutrition availability for those incarcerated (US), Studies in Social Justice “Unpacking the Prison Food Paradox” (Canada) and this global review.
US reporting often focuses on complaints against Aramark, a private company which supplies food to institutions including prisons and colleges. Aramark has been fined, sued, and had contracts cancelled; but many carceral institutions have continuing and new contracts with Aramark. See, e.g., 2023 news report from Kansas City (Missouri), 2021 report from AFSC (American Friends [Quaker] Service Committee), and 2017 PBS News Hour (food focus follows prison labor section).
Reporting from/about Florida also focuses on Aramark, which took over food service within Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) operations in 2022. (FDOC also had a contract with Aramark 2001-2006, and the FDOC’s cost-value analysis raised serious problems with the vendor.)
“Religious Diet” Litigation and Practice in the US
In the United States, “religious diet” — which includes meals for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and others whose religious practice affects diet — is protected under the federal “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000” (details here). Implementing this Act has not been straightforward.
Florida: Garbanzo beans and cold cereal
In one huge case, FDOC refused to supply religious diet as required by federal law, resulting in the United States suing the State of Florida. There were suits in 2002, 2012, and again more recently. Here are some documents providing important details: 2012 federal filing, a US Dept of Justice summary of the result Justice a post-appeal report (2015), plus a 2017 report on further appeals: “And then things got weird.” Meanwhile, a private religiously-focused law firm, which had filed amicus briefs in this case, trumpeted victory (2016) for religious freedom but had, in response to this reporter’s inquiry in late 2023, no information about if/how the ruling was actually being implemented and whether incarcerated people were receiving decent kosher meals.
At present, the religious diet is the same every day of the week, with no hot meal provided at all and insufficient calories. In addition, there are delivery issues with food arriving wet or in other inedible condition. There are limited kosher food options available through the commissary to supplement this meager fare, for those who can afford the price.
Who Decides Who Eats Kosher?
Back in 2012, Forward, reported on this Act and subsequent arguments in Jewish communities and beyond about who was entitled to kosher food. The article quotes leaders of Jewish institutions, including Aleph Institute and Jewish Prison Services International, who sought to decide who should be counted as a Jew for purposes of religious diet. In the last decade, policy-makers have taken a variety of approaches to accommodating kashrut needs of Messianic Jews and other groups. More recently, the ACLU filed suit (NOTE**) against the District of Columbia DOC focusing on the need for third-party certification that an individual is Jewish: delays and difficulties effectively deny kosher diets.
Who Decides What is Kosher?
Another area of challenge is the question of if/how kashrut is supervised. The State of California is not responsible for ensuring the kashrut of food distributed as to kosher-keeping incarcerated people, according to a recent ruling (NOTE**)
The State of New York recently passed legislation requiring halal and kosher options in commissaries and vending machines in state facilities. The bill provides for food that conforms “to the standards typically associated with the particular religious dietary requirements” and includes provisions for petitioning for foods that “conform to higher religious dietary standard.”
**Please note: these articles discuss crimes for which plaintiffs were convicted, which is entirely irrelevant to kashrut needs.
Religious Diet in Canadian Facilities
Further research on religious diets for those incarcerated in Canada is on-going. Here, meanwhile, are two related documents provided by a Matir Asurim chaplain:
Kosher dietary accommodations from Correctional Service of Canada. Religious Accommodation Handbook.
illustration above/feature image description:
Drawing shows cafeteria filled with men in prison jumpsuits; centered are four men at a table with trays of nondescript food. Image credit: Melissa Garden. Cropped from cover of Eating Behind Bars. Full citation for report: Soble, L., Stroud, K., & Weinstein, M. (2020). Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison. Impact Justice. impactjustice.org/impact/food-in-prison/#report