The most popular prison currency in the US has become noodles

The scientific work of Michael Gibson-Light is devoted to one unnamed state prison in one of the southern states of the United States. For his research, which has not yet been published and has not passed the reviewing stage, the scientist for the year (from May 2015 to May 2016) communicated only with 50 prisoners and 7 prison staff, so it is difficult to call it representative, but Gibson-Lite's conclusions deserve attention and extremely curious.

According to the prisoners interviewed by the researcher, in recent decades, the quality of food has steadily deteriorated in prison, primarily because of programs to reduce the cost of prisoners. For example, from the beginning of 2000-x, as пишет Quartz, in the prison in question, changed the company that provided prisoners with food — along with this, the size of portions decreased, and on weekends convicts were completely deprived of lunch. In American prisons even exist the problem of weight loss in prisoners. Food quality suffers too: how transmits The Guardian, prison officials did not advise Gibson-Light to be in the prison canteen, so as not to get poisoned.

In such conditions, prisoners have to rely on the prison shop, where they can buy chocolate bars, chips and instant noodles at inflated prices - now this is the most popular item. It is tasty, high in calories and cheap; noodles can be afford for the money that prisoners receive for simple work in prisons. Noodles need everyone, and it can be exchanged for anything. The quality of life of a prisoner can be estimated by how many sachets of fast food he has in stock.

“I saw how ramen was fought. People are killed for soup, ”one of the prisoners told the researcher. Noodles are playing cards and other games of chance - in fact, it has become a new currency in prison. Earlier this role was performed by cigarettes. The value of noodles has increased so much that for two bags worth about 60 cents each one can barter for a sweater, and for one bag you can get five cigarettes.

Michael Gibson-Light stresses that the decline in the popularity of cigarettes as a means of payment in prisons is not associated with the campaign against smoking among prisoners, which is conducted in penitentiary institutions in the United States.

“The type of currency does not change easily or quickly, even in the conditions of the underground prison economy; you need some kind of big shock for such a significant change. Cigarettes have been used in American prisons as money since the days of the Civil War, and maybe even earlier. The fact that this has now changed has the potential to speak about serious consequences, ”said Gibson Light.

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