Prison menus raise nutrition and health concerns

By Alexandria Staubach
 
Menus recently obtained by Wisconsin Justice Initiative for Green Bay Correctional Institution show a diet dominated by ultra-processed foods high in carbohydrates, fat, and sugar, raising concerns about chronic illnesses and the health of those held in Wisconsin’s prisons.
 
WJI enlisted University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Professor Renee Scampini, director of the school’s undergraduate public health program, to evaluate menus WJI obtained through an open records request.
 
The Department of Corrections provided menus from GBCI for a sample week in January 2025. The menus included a general menu plus some specialty menus for those needing halal, kosher, soft food, or other diets. Scampini looked most closely at the general menu. 

Scampini. Photograph from the UW–Milwaukee website.

“This overall diet makes for high total fat content, added sugar content and other cardiac/cancer concerns,” Scampini opined.
 
Taken at face value, the menus indicate incarcerated individuals are provided with an average of 2,689 calories a day if they eat everything provided. That amount is consistent with recommendations from “The Merck Manual” for sedentary adult males, ages 19 to 60.
 
“This menu looks like it was specifically written to meet an institutional standard of the U.S. dietary requirements,” Scampini told WJI.
 
The calories based on serving size provided in the DOC menus are “probably close to correct,” she said. But she added that how “that actually meshes with what's eaten/tolerated is questionable."
 
As an example, Scampini pointed out that satisfaction of protein goals was primarily met though milk—a questionable practice as many U.S. adults are lactose intolerant. Scampini said this intolerance is even more prevalent in minority groups, particularly Asian American, African American, and Native American populations.
 
“This is the same practice that most U.S. schools use because they contract out dietary services,” said Scampini.  The practice yields a “massive industry of processed prepared (e.g., heat-and-eat) foods that ‘match’ U.S. dietary guidelines,” she said.
 
“Whole grains, fruit, and vegetable goals are woefully low, which also makes fiber low,” Scampini told WJI. She also said that other nutrient needs, such as vitamins and minerals, were likely being met through fortified and enriched processed foods like cereals and muffins.
 
Scampini’s concerns are consistent with insights from inside GBCI. An anonymous resident there told WJI that breakfast was “strictly dry cereal and bread that at times is old.” The same source told WJI that for a while the lunches and dinners during the weekend were a “bag meal which consisted of basically nothing but junk food and/or old (Un)Crustable peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”
 
Scampini hypothesized, based on her time spent in industrial kitchens, that animal-based products in the DOC diet may also be ultra-processed. “For example, chicken is often a reconstituted meat of chicken plus fillers/stabilizers for moisture/easy preparation,” she said.
 
Scampini conservatively estimated that 75% to 83% of calories provided by DOC come from ultra-processed foods. That number that could be higher, as she assumed for her calculations that all fruits and vegetables listed on the menu were fresh, which she told WJI was “highly unlikely.”
 
According to Scampini, the long-term concerns associated with eating an ultra-processed diet stem from its effects on the metabolism. In one multinational study, higher ultra-processed food consumption was associated with an increased risk of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases.

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A table showing Scampini's calculations of total unprocessed and total ultra-processed calories for each day of the sample GBCI menu.

​The menu’s calorie count presumes that a prison resident eats or drinks everything, including all of the ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, sugar packets, and milk provided. For those who are lactose intolerant, do not eat every condiment, or are tired of Uncrustable sandwiches and chips, the calorie intake will be less.
 
There “hasn’t been a meal I’ve had in a while that was fulfilling or even warm to enjoy, which causes me not to even want to eat it, but since I’m not that fortunate to have canteen, I partake in what I can to survive,” the GBCI resident said.
 
Even if an individual has funds to buy items at the canteen, several food items there are also ultra-processed.

The menu at Green Bay Correctional Institution from Jan. 5-11, 2025, provided by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in response to Wisconsin Justice Initiative's open records request.