Jails May Ban Junk Food In New York

New York City officials are considering banning junk food from all city jails.

This news should definitely leave a bad taste in the mouths of New York city jailbirds: Junk food may soon be banned from jail cells.

City officials are supposedly working on a plan that would prevent items like soda, potato chips, honey buns and M&Ms from being sold at jail commisaries, the New York Daily News reported.

"As part of the city's anti-obesity work, we are continuously looking to appropriate steps to improve the food environment in city agencies," mayoral spokeswoman Samantha Levine told the paper.

Although the idea behind the junk food ban is to improve nutrition among the jail population, some jail officials think the good intentions could lead to bad results.

"That's crazy. They are not going to be happy," a jail supervisor told Gothamist.

The website also speculated that Pixie-Stix could become a contraband commodity like cigarettes -- except smoking was banned back in 2003.

No word on whether healthy items like organic wheatgrass juice would replace the junk food, but the Daily News pointed out that the 13,000 inmates at the city's jails spend $13 million at the commissaries each year.

The junk food ban is meant to stop rising health care costs incurred by inmates, but jail visitors and employees will also have to pay as well as the ban will also include vending machines.

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Comments

[JohnBryansFontaine]

11:00 AM on 06/01/2012

Billionaire Bloomberg also wants to ban food for the poor and homeless :

New York's Bloomberg Says Let The Homeless Eat Nothing

http://news.investors.com/article/605679/201203261902/new-york-food-police-hurt-the-homeless.htm

[sacmom3]

01:23 PM on 05/27/2012

Ain't gonna happen. There's too much money in it.

[smlyttle]

03:37 AM on 05/23/2012

I admit right out I know little about jails, but are they being paid to be in jail? They are getting three square meals a day (even if not great food), a bed, and medical care. That's better than a good chunk of homeless people and they did something illegal! Who cares if they aren't getting a sugar fix? I sure don't care if a murder, rapist, drug dealer, arsonists, or someone who robbed a house or anything else doesn't suffer a bit for their crime. Before anyone ones says that’s cruel I'm not saying treat them like animals, I am saying treat them like they have done something wrong. Or do you give chocolate and ice cream to a kid who you grounded for breaking rules? We are having budget problems in the government right? That should be the first place we cut extra off. I know they can get schooling and that should stay, but a jail shouldn’t be a place where they think ‘Hey I can’t find a job so I’ll do some crime to go back to jail and get taken care of for a while.’

[onwisconsin]

11:56 AM on 05/24/2012

The prisoners buy these items out of their individual commissary accounts. Families can put money in those accounts. They have to buy soap, shampoo, shaving cream, etc. in this manner as well.
I suppose the question is whether the state has the right to limit what foods they have access to in these accounts. I would guess that the state does. My grandfather was the captain of the guard at a prison when I was a child. He talked about having to police the black market of forbidden items at the prison all the time. I wonder if this change in policy would only cause already overburdened guards more work for no reason. In addition, prison fare is not the healthiest food. If they're going to work on the health of the prisoners, they should probably work on that first.

[JDHARTIL]

02:28 PM on 05/22/2012

Bet you the folk that have come up with this have never worked in a jail. A sure recipe for trouble.

[Wrench Turner]

01:04 PM on 05/22/2012

This will drive the heroin junkies nuts. My grandpa was a police electrician for the city of Yonkers in the 50s-80s, they used to give them chocolate and oranges to help them ease out of withdraw a little. That was one thing he always told my mom and her siblings "just for the love of God, don't use heroin ever..." he had such high standards...

[zaniah]

12:25 PM on 05/22/2012

they dont need to do that its going to be more fights in jail they need there junk food

[yulaffin]

12:19 PM on 05/22/2012

Pixie-Stixs (do they still make those?) as contraband - I love it!

[Anooshka]

11:36 AM on 05/22/2012

Why? Are they trying to prolong the life of these animals? I think their meals should consist entirely of crap food! This would probably reduce the taxpayer's budget to keep these animals in prison, which last time I checked was $20K a year. Ho hos for breakfast, donuts for lunch, and candy bars for dinner. They are lucky to fed as it is!

[Greer Phillips]

10:42 AM on 05/22/2012

Wait. You can't smoke in jail? That just seems wrong, somehow.

[EmmaNYC]

10:02 AM on 05/22/2012

Just another attempt by the Divine Mayor to re-make the world in His godly image.
As He is fit, so shall all others be.
As He shuns salt and sweet, so shall all others.
As He knows what is best for all, so shall all bow their heads in acquiescence.

18 months until Liberation Day in NYC.

[NYCKitty]

09:44 AM on 05/22/2012

The point of jail/prison is punishment, losing your freedoms, losing the things you like to do, like to watch and like to eat. Giving prisoners whatever they want, when they want it is defeating the purpose of punishment.

[Shannon Devon McKee]

06:58 PM on 05/22/2012

Except a lot of people who are in jail are there for petty reasons. Not everyone in jail is a murderer and they shouldn't all be deprived equally. Are you saying a person who was caught smoking pot should get the same punishment as a rapist?

[NYCKitty]

10:11 AM on 05/23/2012

A person smoking pot is doing time in a NYS prison? Really? You may want to try that one again - they're not in jail for smoking pot. Pot is still illegal. I'm tired of everyone trying to decriminalize something that isn't. So to answer your question, yes, the pot smoker who's doing 25-life (roll eyes) in Marcy should have the same punishment as the rapist. Prison is what it is - don't break the law and there won't be a problem.

[Angela Laws]

09:30 AM on 05/22/2012

I would not want to be a guard in those prisons during the first week of no Junk Food. Can you say unintended consequences?

[Spiral Architect]

09:19 AM on 05/22/2012

They should ban all junk food. Punish them by giving them carrots, kale and other things that nobody wants. I'm all for it.

[plepgeat]

02:22 AM on 05/22/2012

Just get rid of the commissaries entirely, fer chrissake.

[Ty Treadwell]

11:12 PM on 05/21/2012

This is actually quite a serious issue, and not just because of the health issues related to junk food. Barely a week goes by without an inmate being stabbed by a shank fashioned from a stale Twinkie, and many an inmate has lost an eye after being poked in the face by a salty, greasy Slim Jim.

http://deathrowsoddestinmates.blogspot.com/