If you ’ve ever watched a prison dramatic play , you know the grandness of cigaret in the underground punishable economy . In lieu of cash , a ring of smokes becomes the preferred pecuniary building block . Or at least that ’s how it used to be .
Now , according tonew researchfrom University of Arizona School of Sociology doctoral candidate Michael Gibson - Light , ramen attic cups have surpass tobacco , stamps and gasbag to become the inmate coin of option — and the rationality has nothing to do with prison ordinance or nicotine - avoiding yardbird .
It ’s a situation that amounts to what the researcher visit " punitive frugality . " Simply put , the cost of care trickles down from underfunded prison systems to the inmates and their support networks .
While these findings halt from interviews at a exclusive prison , Gibson - Light accentuate that the tendency is discernible in other prison house where baccy products are countenance . What ’s more , he celebrate the move to a ramen - ground prison up-to-dateness across various inmate population , surety levels , ingroup and racial mathematical group . Ramen cups even pour down up as bargaining chip in poker game .
Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote that " the degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prison house . " What , therefore , does the concept of punitive frugalness say us about the modern state of civilization in the United States ?
Gibson - Light is presenting his report " Must Work for Food : The Politics of Nutrition and Informal Economy in an American Prison " today at the American Sociological Association ’s 111th Annual Meeting in Seattle .
