Eating Humble Pie: Using Prison Food Narratives to Understand Incarceration

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Narratives about food and eating have been used to understand the human experience across time and place. This panel presents four analyses of qualitative data gathered from incarcerated people about food and eating in correctional settings in order to expand understanding about the lived experience of incarceration. Two papers from the United States focus on the unique experiences of minority populations: women in jail and HIV-positive prisoners. Participants’ stories about ersatz cooking in the housing units and interactions in the cafeteria paint vivid pictures of the micro-activities of daily prison life through which identities and relationships are constructed. Two additional papers from Western Europe describe and analyze self-catering systems which allow incarcerated people to shop, cook, and clean for themselves. While these food programs help to create a life inside prison that is similar to life in the community, efforts to construct normal food systems may be thwarted by circumstances that are fundamentally abnormal. Taken together, these papers demonstrate the power of food to understand prison spaces and set a course for future research about incarcerated lives.

Sub Unit

• Area VII: Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 38: Corrections

Individual Presentations

• The Prison Nourish Project: Food in the Lives of HIV-Positive Prisoners - Amy Brooks Smoyer, Southern Connecticut State University

• Baking Bittersweet: Mothers’ Dessert-Making Behind Bars - Ami Stearns, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Prison Food in Denmark: Normal Responsibility? - Linda Kjaer Minke, University of Southern Denmark

• The Effects of Self-Catering on Prisoners’ Detention Experiences in Belgium - An-Sofie Vanhouche, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Chair

• Amy Brooks Smoyer, Southern Connecticut State University