Rep. Schiff Leads 20+ Colleagues in Urging Bureau of Prisons to Increase Plant-Based Meat Options for Federal Inmates

July 29, 2024

Today, Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) urged Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Colette S. Peters to include more plant-based meat options for inmates in federal prisons. In a letter, Schiff, Brownley, and 24 colleagues called for the BOP to include meatless options for breakfast and to see further action taken to ensure that healthier vegetarian options currently on BOP's national menu are consistently available for prisoners across facilities across the country. The letter also requested information from the BOP about their current practices regarding non-meat options for inmates.

"Expanding access to plant-based options is a pathway to better health outcomes for inmates. As you know, federal prisons house inmates who suffer from chronic and diet-related health conditions at or above the rates among age-, race-, and sex-matched populations within the general public. However, inmates have far lower access to both preventive lifestyle measures and pharmacological treatments while in prison, which together contribute to excess mortality from nearly all major causes of death in the years following their release," wrote the lawmakers.

"Offering plant-based meals can also be a cost-effective option for prisons to provide nutritious food to patients. Much of the most forward-thinking innovation demonstrating cost savings comes from the healthcare sector. For example, an analysis prepared for a health care network with data based on a hospital with 350 beds and 5,000 staff members concluded that offering plant-based defaults would reduce food-related costs for patients by $0.74 per meal over a 6- month pilot and $0.65 per meal over a 5-year program," continued the lawmakers.

"We recognize that BOP is charged with the enormous responsibility of protecting public safety while ensuring that federal offenders serve their sentences in a safe, humane, cost-efficient, and secure way. We look forward to receiving this information from BOP and appreciate your attention to this critical matter," concluded the lawmakers.

"Providing plant-based meals in prisons is the prescription for helping inmates prevent and treat diet-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease," said Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. "Plant-based meals are also cost-effective and can allow the Bureau of Prisons' facilities to better cater to religious requirements, allergies, and food intolerances. I appreciate Representatives Schiff and Brownley for leading this letter to help ensure the BOP is more consistently offering plant-based options."

"Inmates in federal prisons have little to no control over their diets and therefore diminished agency to make positive health changes-even though they suffer the same or higher rates of diet-related diseases as the nonincarcerated. We know from decades of nutrition research that less processed and nutrient-dense plant-based foods are required to prevent and mitigate such illnesses, which often go inhumanely undertreated in the prison population," added Madeline Bennett, a Food System & Nutrition Policy Analyst at Balanced. "Expanding access to plant-based dining options at all mealtimes will give inmates meaningful options through which they can exert control over their own health. Though plant-based meals are no panacea, inmates' having consistent access to such options would be an impactful corrective to the current insufficiencies of federal prison food service."

"Every person deserves the right to choose a healthy, culturally appropriate, plant-based meal - including those who are incarcerated in federal prisons," said Lisa Gonzalez, Senior Food and Climate Policy Analyst with Friends of the Earth. "We thank Representative Brownley and Representative Schiff for encouraging the Bureau of Prisons to strengthen its commitment to provide a variety of healthy, appealing plant-based options."

The letter is supported by Balanced, Friends of the Earth, Food Solutions Action, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

The letter is also signed by Representatives Alma Adams (D-N.C.), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Donald Beyer (D-Va.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Susan Wild (D-Pa.), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.).

Read the full letter here.

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