A University of Arizona student’s study has found that ramen noodles are on their way to replacing cigarettes as the preferred form of “currency” among prison inmates.
Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral student in the university’s School of Sociology, found that the increase in ramen’s popularity isn’t caused by tobacco bans in prison, but because of the declining quality and quantity of food, according to a UA news release.
From May 2015 to May 2016, Gibson-Light interviewed roughly 60 inmates and prison staff members from an undisclosed men’s state prison.
“Prisoners are so unhappy with the quality and quantity of prison food that they receive that they have begun relying on ramen noodles — a cheap, durable food product — as a form of money in the underground economy,” Gibson-Light said.
During interviews, staff members and inmates detailed the history of changes in prison food over the past few decades, saying that the quality and quantity has been on a steady decline.
“Throughout the nation, we can observe prison cost-cutting and cost-shifting as well as changes in the informal economic practices of inmates,” Gibson-Light said. “Services are cut back and many costs are passed on to inmates, in an effort to respond to calls to remain both tough on crime and cost effective.”
Because ramen is inexpensive, high in calories and tastes good, it’s become valuable enough to trade for other items, such as clothing, hygiene products and even services, like laundry and bunk cleaning, Gibson-Light said. The instant noodles are often available for purchase in prison canteens.
In addition to cigarettes, ramen noodles are also replacing stamps and envelopes as forms of in-demand currency, the study found.
Gibson-Light has asked for a deeper study of prison food services, as his findings are from only one prison, but he referenced other investigations that indicate the trend towards using ramen as currency exists in prisons that haven’t banned tobacco use.
“The form of money is not something that changes often or easily, even in the prison underground economy — it takes a major issue or shock to initiate such a change,” he said.
Gibson-Light presented his research last week at the 111th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
