"prison" news and stories

Why this story hasn't gotten more coverage is beyond me. Global produce news site FreshPlaza recently reported on the incarceration of Spuddy Buddy, the official mascot of Idaho potatoes, during a trade mission to Mexico. "His paperwork was not complete," the article says. Discussions between Mexican officials and the Idaho governor and trade officials ensued and Spuddy was eventually released from prison and granted a 48-hour pass of some sort. The newly-liberated tuber then joined up with his cohorts, including Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, for cooking demonstrations and a visit to one of Mexico's most popular supermarkets. Strangely enough, The Spuddy Buddy Fan Club says nothing of this incident.

[Photo: Idaho Governor's Missions]

A few months ago, I did a post about pruno, a fermented drink often made by prison inmates. Well, here's something from the other end of the "cooking in prison" spectrum: The Cellblock Cafe. John "The Jailhouse Gourmet" Mandala, an inmate at Sing Sing Correctional Facilities medium security annex, hosts this site of recipes and musings about his experiences learning to cook during more than a decade in prison. The Cellblock Cafe is an offshoot of Friends Beyond The Wall, a New-York-Based prison pen-pal program. Apparently Mandala and some of the other recipe contributors have limited access to kitchen facilities, so some of the recipes aren't as dire as you might expect. While Mandala's introduction does recount scenes of broiling hot dogs with radio antennae or heating a cup of coffee with burning toilet paper, the recipes hosted here are a bit more refined. Things like fried rice and Jamaican stew reflect the diverse backgrounds of the cooks, and pancake batter figures a little more heavily than I would've expected.

A previous post about hobo jug wine got me to thinking about recipes I’d seen for pruno, a fermented fruit beverage often made in prisons.

The basic idea of combing heat, fruit and sugar to create alcohol is often used by inmates who have access to sweetened products such as fruit cocktail, ketchup, orange juice and even sauerkraut.

Eric Gillin at The Black Table decided to bring a little slice of lockdown into his own home by brewing up a batch of pruno and documenting every step. Granted, this is a little more sophisticated than straining a can of sterno through a loaf of Bunny Bread, but it still sounds pretty rank.

Gillin had this to say about the final product (pictured here): “The only drawback pruno has, aside from its unappealing tannish-orange color, the white flecks of mold floating on the top and the smell you can't wash off, is its taste. For lack of a better metaphor, pruno tastes like a bile flavored wine cooler. It tastes so bad, in fact, that it could very well be poisonous or psychedelic, which might explain the violence it induces in prisoners.”

Due to the violent tendencies that Gillin mentions, many prisons have removed fresh fruit from their meals in hopes of stemming incarcerated vintners.

Also, here's some pruno poetry from Jarvis Jay Masters, a death row inmate at San Quentin.

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