What do prisoners eat? How the grocery business works in prison
The level of food quality in various penitentiary institutions on the planet can probably be assessed using a five-point system. The prisons of some European countries deserve the highest rating, where prison canteens are more like cafes; “good” can be given to North America, Australia, South Korea for relatively high-calorie and high-quality, but monotonous food; Japan, India, China, Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe get a C grade. Europe - “soup and porridge are our food.” And the last place in this ranking is occupied by Africa, Latin America, and the republics of the post-Soviet space. In general, the dishes there are more like slop.
If we talk about Russia, then in the prison budget, in the “food” column, about 12 billion rubles per year are written down. This is almost 900 thousand convicted and under investigation.
The author of these lines had a chance to “spy”, apparently, a typical menu in an average colony. For breakfast: cabbage stewed with vegetables and butter, compote, bread. For lunch, cabbage soup made from fresh cabbage with meat, boiled pasta with butter and bread. For dinner, the same pasta, but with meat added, often in the form of gravy, pickles, bread and tea with milk.
The diet of those kept in prisons or pre-trial detention centers contains essential supplements: milk, eggs, dried fruits and vitamins. Minors and pregnant women receive additional vegetables, sugar and meat to the main menu.
But here is the testimony of one of the former convicts on how to prepare the soup for consumption. The combined fat is removed first by pouring the liquid into a bucket, and then the remaining mass is washed several times with tap water. At the next stage, rotten vegetables and pieces that cause suspicion are removed from the brew. Then everything is again filled with hot water and the ingredients received from outside are added in the form of, for example, instant noodles or puree.
It must be said that convicts are less lucky than those who are in pre-trial detention. At least those under investigation (if, of course, they are free) 
They have compassionate relatives) can receive a monthly food parcel weighing up to 30 kilograms.
The list of products is quite extensive: no more than two sticks of hard smoked sausage, canned fish and meat - also no more than two pieces, since the cans are opened and their contents must be destroyed immediately upon receipt, salted lard, butter and sunflower oil, cookies, gingerbread, tea, etc. etc. True, in some pre-trial detention centers, wealthy prisoners can order meals from restaurants through the administration. But let's return to the zone.
Bread is the head of everything
Indeed, this aphorism, which was coined by the 19th century Moscow baker Filippov, perfectly reflects the degree of significance of this product. But, alas, only Western Europe has its own bakeries in prisons. Therefore, our compatriots receive secondary baked bread. Stale loaves that are not sold in the store are sent back to the plant, ground, mixed with bran and cake, baked and sent to the zone. Naturally, such products, which are more like putty, do not evoke much appetite.
But in two cases it is in demand. In the first, figures are made from it, for example, for chess, which then become intra-camp currency, with which you can buy a more decent bakery product in the prison shop and cook something delicious for the holiday table.
But for now, let’s leave the official loaf alone, although from its crumb you can create an “Ostrozhensky pie” if you pinch it around the edges, and the filling will be sprat in tomato or “sprat pate”. This is how he prepares. Those who have access to a camp kitchen dry fish heads and tails on a stove or radiator, then grind them into powder and, mixing with margarine, turn the product into a relatively edible mass.
The main culinary research of Russian prisoners is aimed at confectionery products. For example, “apple pies”. The crust is cut off from a loaf of white bread, which is used for crackers, the pulp is cut into layers, between which apple jam is spread, the edges are pinched, and the dish is ready to eat.
The recipe for the “Festive” pie is much more complicated. Several packs of cookies are ground with spoons in mugs, margarine, sugar are added, if possible - condensed milk and sweets. From the resulting mass, cakes are molded, which are sandwiched with the same condensed milk or cream of margarine and sugar.
But what is a holiday table without booze? This is where prison bread comes into play. It is moistened with water, placed in a plastic bag and wrapped in some warm clothing, such as a sweater. After which they hide it in a hiding place, the role of which can be played by an empty fire extinguisher or an oxygen cylinder. After a week, when the bread turns into yeast, warm water and sugar are added to it, and if possible, dried fruits. Three days later the mash is ready.
But perhaps the most common and accessible drink is chifir. Water is poured into a mug, heated until bubbles appear, then 50 grams of loose leaf tea is poured in and boiled a little. The invigorating drink is drunk in small sips, passing the mug around.
Our response to Martha Stewart
But in the USA, culinary exercises are more likely to be a creative search rather than an addition to the diet.
In 2004, the “queen of housewives,” the host of culinary television programs, Martha Stewart, was sentenced to 5 months in prison and another five months of house arrest for securities fraud. Even while behind bars, she continued to feed her fans with culinary recipes. And then the prisoners of the Washington prison had the idea to react to this event.
This is how the Outlaw Cookbook was born. In addition to essays by prison residents on the topic “Why We Cook in Prison Cells” and “Bad Boys, Good Taste,” it contains about 200 recipes from prisoners, which were collected by prison doctor Rick Webb, and the best-selling book was illustrated by prisoner John Buco, who also offered his own recipe - “How to cook the perfect omelet in a plastic bag.” Namely, mix all the ingredients and bring to readiness in boiling water, fortunately, the use of a “sting” - a boiler - is allowed in American prisons.
A recipe came from the Fort Fix prison on how to prepare pickles in a cell from vegetables stolen from the kitchen in a plastic bucket with a sealed lid. As a shredding tool, it is recommended to use not only plastic knives, sharpened can lids, but also disposable razor blades.
Prisoners of the Orient prison shared the secrets of preparing “Tortillo Baklava”. In fact, this is an analogue of our “Holiday” pie, only instead of cakes we use round corn tortillas with a layer of honey, butter, peanuts and bananas.
The names of other dishes are no less exotic. For example. “Prison block toffees” can be prepared using a well-known technology in our country by boiling a can of condensed milk.
Another masterpiece is the “Sandwich for the Stoner” - peanut cookies filled with a slightly melted Snickers-type chocolate bar. It is called that because drug addicts who are in jail experience withdrawal symptoms, and sugar helps reduce it.
"Dummy Soup" - "Idiot's Soup" based on the contents of a thirty-cent bag of soup, seasoned with bell peppers and lettuce, an analogue of our leeks. The fact is that for some reason black prisoners disdain vegetable salads, and they can easily be taken out of the prison canteen. And, in addition, it is recommended to add... cigarette ash. According to the authors of the recipe, this component gives the dish the taste of a boiled egg. For dessert - "Outlaw Mocha", coffee made from chocolate candies. There are also culinary revelations from the Chinese prison diaspora. For example, how to properly cook rice with mushrooms.
In Europe, they decided not to lag behind and, edited by the doctor of one of the French maximum security colonies, Claude Derruson, a similar cookbook was published, and one of the restaurateurs even organized a competition for the best recipe for cooking in a cell. The main prize - a color TV - was won by the prisoner who proposed not only the recipe for “Fried sea bass with mushrooms on salad”, but also the method of preparing the dish. To do this, you need a stool wrapped in foil, on which two electric frying pans are placed on top of each other.
Leonid Luzhkov
Based on newspaper materials
"Behind Bars" (No. 12 2010)
Some citizens of our country are wondering how taxpayers’ money, essentially the money of every law-abiding citizen of Russia, feeds prisoners in prisons called for the correction of criminals and their subsequent integration into a social legal society. Do they eat the so-called “gruel”, which many singers in the chanson genre praise as something unique and to some extent romantic, which, together with the “stage” and “shkonka”, is associated by many with “places not so remote”. In this article we will talk about this specific topic, which is to explain the established diet of the Russian Federation.
Nutritional standards for prisoners in Russia.As it was before
It’s worth starting with the fact that until 2016, in all, without exception, correctional colonies and prisons in Russia, the choice of diet for prisoners was, in fact, left to chance. It was before this time period that every second person (if not more) constantly complained about the daily food system, which was defined by a single slang concept “gruel”, which is the simplest possible stew (soup) without the presence of high-calorie foods in it. This circumstance has always led to difficult adaptation among persons who have just arrived at the place of serving their sentence, and it often turns into a psychological crisis. In addition, the lack of high-calorie food led to a decrease in the activity of the contingent of correctional institutions, but on the contrary, sometimes led to mass riots and hunger strikes.
It should be noted that not all citizens of our country care about how and what the criminals eat, and even if their diet is truly terrible, this circumstance, due to the acts committed by the prisoners, does not cause pity. We can partly agree with this, since a place that is designed to ensure the infliction of appropriate punishment, and, therefore, as a result to achieve repentance and prevent, a priori should not seem like a trip to a sanatorium. And the lack of adequate nutrition for centuries has been a fairly solid motivational factor for those who have already experienced all the “delights” of prison life.
New diet
All of the above is already a forgotten past by many, since since 2016, with the entry into force
Order of the Federal Penitentiary Service dated September 2, 2016 No. 696 “On approval of the Procedure for organizing meals for convicts, suspects and defendants held in institutions of the penal system” and Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 11, 2005 N 205
the entire system of material and living support in terms of the established diet was completely revised. Now, with the changes actually working, which are provided for by the above-mentioned legal acts, no one will have the desire or justification to call food “gruel.” So, specifying the changes made, we can outline what the power supply system currently looks like and how it differs from previously established standards:
- "Diversity". If previously a prisoner could receive the same dish or different dishes prepared from the same products for both lunch and dinner, now this is not allowed. In addition, the main courses should also be varied in nature, for example, if it is a meat cutlet, then it should be prepared in two variations - fried and boiled;
- "One-time use." Establishment of three meals a day with breaks between meals of no more than 7 hours.
- "Temperature". All food intended to be eaten hot must be served accordingly. For example, the first - the temperature is not lower than 75 degrees, the second - not lower than 65 degrees, tea - not lower than 80 degrees;
- "Volume". The minimum daily nutritional standards are defined in the provisions of Federal Law No. 205 of 2005 and generally look like this (in comparison with a similar system for accused and suspects):
Daily volume per person (in grams) Minimum rate for those sentenced to imprisonment
Norm for suspects and accused
Men Women Men Women Bread made from a mixture of peeled rye and wheat flour, grade I 300 150 300 150 Wheat bread from grade II flour 250 200 200 200 Wheat flour, grade II 5 5 5 5 Various cereals 100 90 90 90 Pasta 30 30 30 30 Meat 90 100 100 100 Poultry meat 30 30 30 30 Fish 100 100 100 100 Margarine products 35 30 25 20 Vegetable oil 20 20 20 20 Cow's milk (milliliters) 100 100 100 200 Sugar 30 30 30 30 Table salt 20 15 15 15 Natural tea 1 1 1 1 Bay leaf 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1 Mustard powder 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,2 Tomato paste 3 3 3 3 Potato 550 500 500 450 Vegetables 250 250 250 250 Dry jelly fortified 25 25 25 25 or dried fruits 10 10 10 10 Chicken eggs (pieces per week) 2 2 0
Of course, all of the above is only a small part of the requirements established by the new legislation. Order No. 44689 describes many nuances, including the state of a particular product after primary processing or how vegetables should be cut.
