College graduates who got through school on them are likely to be surprised that ramen noodles are currently described as “gold” by many prison inmates.

Ramen noodles are apparently used as an underground currency these days, as cigarettes once were.

One former inmate said prisoners are willing to “kill for it, believe it or not.”

The implication is that prison nutrition is that bad, in many American prisons.

The U.S. Department of Justice should determine whether this is true.

The ramen situation was uncovered by a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona’s school of sociology. …Michael Gibson-Light presented the results of his interviews with 60 male inmates and staff members to the American Sociological Association’s annual conference…

…a former inmate … said this about the sad trend: “It got to the point where some people would rather have a decent meal than a stogie, especially the way they’re feeding us in prison.”

… Someone is likely to point out that these are, after all, people behind bars for the crimes they committed, many of them heinous…

…in a humane society, a prisoner’s punishment is his sentence, not the conditions of his imprisonment.

No one is advocating plasma TV screens in every cell. But we don’t put people in dungeons and chains anymore…

The justice department needs to earn its money and look into this matter.

 

The (Toledo) Blade