‘QAnon Shaman’ rioter will eat organic food, while most prisons and prisons have a reputation for serving unhealthy food

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“The fact that this man receives this type of preference shows the double standard of the criminal justice system and the detention system,” said Reverend Al Sharpton, iconic civil rights activist and founder of the National Action Network.

Following the judge’s order, Chansley was transferred last Thursday to the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia. He was moved there after Aramark, one of the country’s largest food service providers and the prison’s contract food service, said he could meet court requirements and provide organic meals, said Amy Bertsch, spokesperson for the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office.

His lawyers have argued in court documents that he needed an organic diet because of his faith in shamanism, an ideology “centered on the belief in a supernatural phenomenon such as the world of gods, demons and gods. ancestral spirits ”.

Sharpton, who has been arrested and detained in state and federal institutions more than 30 times after protesting injustices, said some prisons may honor an inmate’s request, especially if it is a regime religiously based. But “sometimes it’s not likely.”

“In state prisons, you eat what they give you or you starve … it is an absolute and punitive punishment beyond respect for human rights and dignity”, said Sharpton said. “At the federal level, they have different protocols and they ask you if you have any dietary or religious preferences.”

A look at federal prison food

The William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center – where former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and other high-profile defendants were once held – is not a federal prison.

But if found guilty and sentenced, Chansley, who is a federal defendant, will likely be transferred to a BOP facility.

According to a copy of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) National Menu 2020, which was shared with CNN, federal inmates are given a variety of breakfast items, including hot oatmeal, bread , jelly and fruit. For lunch and dinner, there’s a five-week rotating menu that includes beef or soy tacos, a tuna or hummus salad, and a peppercorn or lentil steak, the menu says.

For the fiscal year 2019 budget, the BOP has estimated that it will serve approximately 175 million meals to more than 184,000 federal inmates. The BOP also estimated that more than $ 401,000 would be spent on catering services at 122 establishments and other establishments. This represents around 4% of the agency’s budget for salary and expense credits.

Justin Long, a spokesperson for BOP, said fresh fruit and vegetables were served daily and “inmates have the option of choosing from a regular, heart-healthy or fleshless dish for each meal,” including vegan options. “

“The quality of the food served to our prison population is a priority of the Bureau of Prisons,” said Long. He could not confirm whether the food served at BOP’s facilities was organic.

According to a report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General, the BOP has a protocol in place to ensure its food supply is safe and does not always document or communicate supplier quality issues.
In recent years, vendors have been accused of supplying adulterated food to BOP. Last year, two meat-packing plant executives were sentenced to 46 and 42 months in prison after being accused of supplying $ 1 million worth of adulterated meat, including whole cow hearts labeled as ” ground beef, “at 32 BOP institutions, according to the report.
Last month, the owners of a food company that supplied South Carolina prisons agreed to pay $ 250,000 after authorities claimed the company had diluted spices that “consisted primarily of filler.” from 2011 to 2018, the Justice Department said in a press release.

“Contractors selected and paid by the government to provide food to detainees must comply with contractual and other standards,” said Kenneth R. Dieffenbach, special agent in charge of the Department of Justice’s office of the inspector’s office. general fraud detection.

“When they supply adulterated products, as the accused allegedly have done here, the government is being cheated and the health and safety of detainees is put at risk.”

Blacks and Maroons receive ‘terrible food’ daily

The Alexandria Detention Center, where Chansley is being held pending trial.

Leslie Soble, a researcher at Impact Justice, a non-profit organization that advocates for criminal justice reform, said giving organic food to inmates in US correctional facilities is “totally unknown.”

“Millions of other incarcerated people, most often black and brown people from low-income communities, receive horrible food day after day, year after year,” said Soble, senior author of “Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison, “a report exploring the quality and impact of food in American prisons.

“Chansley is a blatant example of white privilege and racial injustice,” she said, referring to her ability to obtain such food and move facilities to do so.

The report, based on responses from nearly 500 formerly incarcerated people and their families, found that in many cases the food served is unsafe, unattractive, and of low nutritional value.

“Someone told us that the only time they would get chocolate milk was when the milk was spoiled,” said Soble, who has done extensive research on the foods served in prison.

About 75% of those polled said they were given rotten or spoiled food during their incarceration, the report says, and many people assigned to work in their prison kitchen said they were asked to serve chicken or beef from packages marked “not for human consumption.”

While most facilities require that meals include vegetables and fruit, Soble says, what’s served ranges from a spoonful of applesauce, chunks of canned fruit, and canned green beans. In most states, Soble estimates that prisons spend between $ 2.50 and $ 3 per person on meals per day.

When asked about the food served at Alexandria Prison, an Aramark spokesperson told CNN that all correctional facility menus are designed by “registered dietitians to meet the nutritional needs” specified by each individual facility and to individuals. guidelines established by the American Correctional Association.

Sharpton said he believes there should be federal law to deal with inmate nutrition since not all incarcerated people are convicted of a crime.

Some just cannot post a bond yet, he said, and “they are treated as less than human, there is no consideration for their health. There is no consideration for their preferences. food. “

“It should be a law in the United States that we do not incarcerate people and force them to eat food to survive on food provided by the state that is contrary to their health needs, to their needs. religious needs or their food preferences, ”he told me.

Soble saw how the decision to follow through on Chansley’s request for organic food has drawn criticism and hopes it will lead more people to question why low-quality food in prison has become the norm.

“Why is it okay to use food as a punishment for people in prison?” Said Soble.

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