There are 43 federal prisons in Canada, incarcerating 14,015 individuals (Correctional Services Canada 2018a). Behind bars, food holds great importance; it is a source of nourishment, a valued commodity within the informal economy, a tool of both punishment and healing and a means through which to express one’s identity (Godderis 2006a, Timler and Brown 2019, Jimenez Murguia 2018). Smith goes so far as to argue that food is “symbolic of the prison experience” (2002: 197). Food has also become a site and tool of contestation and power relations (Brimasn 2008). From hunger strikes to farms and garden programs, food is a means through which to resist state violence and re-imagine post-carceral futures.
Given these diverse roles and meanings, carceral food systems provide a unique and compelling area of study that implicates a range actors and organizations both within and outside of correctional institutions. Despite this, little research has been carried out to understand and analyze carceral food systems, particularly as a site of contestation and possibility, and within the Canadian context.
In response, this project will explore food as “contested terrain” (Brisman 2008) within the Canadian prison system, seeking to (1) map the key actors and relationships implicated in carceral food systems and (2) to analyze particular moments and sites where food has been taken up as a tool to contest the treatment of prisoners and articulate alternative possibilities.