Instant Ramen Quickly Becoming Most Popular Prison Currency

According to research conducted by Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona who interviewed more than 60 prisoners and has studied prisons nationwide, instant noodles have surpassed cigarettes as the most valuable commodity in incarcerated populations in the United States.

“[Ramen] is easy to get and it’s high in calories”. The prisoners were no longer receiving three hot meals each day and some claimed they didn’t receive enough food or that they were anxious the food provided might cause them to feel unwell.

Ramen noodles are becoming an increasingly valuable commodity in USA prisons-where they are even more popular than tobacco. The quantity and quality of the food inmates were served dropped as a result.

“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.

‘The shift from tobacco to ramen highlights how dire the nutritional standards at prisons has become, ‘ he added.

American prisoners are kicking cigarettes for ramen noodles – at least when it comes to paying each other off, according to a new study.

One prisoner explained to Gibson-Light, “One way or another, everything in prison is about money”.

The instant noodle is so popular that one US ex-con co-authored a cookbook of ramen recipes inspired by his time behind bars. Soup is money in here. Yet two packets of ramen can by a sweatshirt worth $10.81, for example. It’s sad but true’.

The study is entitled “Must Work for Food: The Politics of Nutrition and Informal Economy in an American Prison”. He said a change in underground currency should be alarming to those in charge of the nation’s prisons.

He concluded that it is not because cigarettes and tobacco products have been banned, but rather cost cuts mean the food available in correctional facilities has declined in quality and quantity, something Gibson-Light calls “punitive frugality”. “The use of cigarettes as money in USA prisons happened in American Civil War military prisons and likely far earlier”.

According to his study, which will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in Seattle on Monday, packets of dried noodles are being used by inmates not only to pay for other goods behind bars – whether candies, clothing or cosmetic items – as well as services like laundry or bunk-cleaning, but also as chips in poker games. “The fact that this practice has suddenly changed has potentially serious implications”.