Pro-vegan editorial in AJC

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Letters to the Editor

Atlanta Constitution

P.O. Box 4689

Atlanta, GA 30002

constitution

fax: 404-526-5610 or 5611

 

 

Constitution Home Edition

© The Atlanta Journal - Constitution

Wednesday, 11/08/2000

Section: Editorial Letter: A Page: 19 Words: 610

 

Vegan menus promise healthier, safer prisons

 

By Jerry Vlasak, Bernie Fischlowitz-Roberts

 

Simply put, typical prison meals have long constituted cruel and

unusual punishment. With October's good news that the U.S. Bureau of

Prisons will provide healthy vegan options at every meal at all federal

prisons, that's about to change. This progress comes just weeks after the

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed an affidavit to support

the lawsuit by Keith Maydak, an inmate at Pennsylvania's Lewisburg Federal

Penitentiary, trying to ensure that he and other prisoners could get such

meals. In May, a federal judge encouragingly ruled that Maydak's lawsuit is

''substantially likely to succeed.''

 

Surely, only the most vindictive would force prisoners onto bread and

water. However, most current fare is actually worse, both for the long-term

health of inmates and society.

 

In Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio feeds inmates donated

bologna sandwiches and ham. Some Maryland inmates make processed meats such

as beef patties, stew meats and turkey loaf. In Iqualuit, Nunavat, Canada,

Inuit inmates undertake hunting expeditions. Prisoners don't just do time,

they do cholesterol.

 

Enough already. The time is right to dramatically improve prison meals

by taking meat off the menus: in with the bean burritos, out with the beef

burgers. That could shrink prison budgets, prisoner waistlines, and some

prisoners' violent tendencies. Who would argue against that?

 

As of mid-1998, the United States incarcerated a staggering 1.8 million

people, double the number from 12 years earlier, according to the U.S.

Justice Department. At three meals per day, that's more than 1.9 billion

meals served annually. With more inmates, reducing costs counts more than

ever. Switching

from a meat-based diet to a health-promoting vegan menu can save lots of money.

 

Consider the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the second-largest

U.S. prison system, which serves state inmates VitaPro, a vitamin-rich,

texturized, soy-based, meat-flavored alternative from Montreal. Texas

prisons cut weekly meat consumption by 70,000 pounds, a 50 percent

reduction. Texas reports a 43 percent cost savings over meat, and inmate

reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

 

On New York City's 10-jail Rikers Island, some of the 16,000 inmates

tend gardens that in 1998 produced 30,000 pounds of fresh vegetables, worth

more than $8,100 --- and bestowed psychological benefits as well as

practical skills --- with virtually no trouble reported. It's an experiment

being tried in

too few places.

 

Besides saving money, vegan diets also mean healthier inmates,

decreasing hospital and infirmary expenses. Vegan diets cut the risk of

heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, some cancers and other chronic

illnesses.

 

Medical research links consumption of meat (and sugar) to aggravated

mood swings and violent outbreaks among prisoners. In 1992, a study in the

British medical journal The Lancet linked men's blood-serum triglyceride

levels (raised by meat-eating) to hostile acts and domineering attitudes.

 

Such findings suggest plant-food diets not only lessen health problems,

but also can foster safer prisons. Furthermore, many vegetarian inmates

ethically object to eating animal products.

 

Reducing violence, improving inmate health and saving money are all

important goals. Making prison menus vegan can further those ends and help

bring about a more peaceful society for all.

 

 

Jerry Vlasak, a Southern California trauma surgeon, is a member of the

Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Bernie

Fischlowitz-Roberts is a 2000 graduate of Haverford (Pa.) College and a

former PCRM intern.