Meals are perhaps the most important aspect of jail life. They maintain inmates alive, both in physical form and emotionally, as clutter halls and common areas provide a level of cultural interaction in an usually lonely situation. Albert “Prodigy” Johnson served three-and-a-half years in prison, and throughout that time his concentrate was on his health-an extremely difficult feat behind pubs, where many inmates frequently enter the jail system healthful but keep with diabetes and hypertension.

Commissary Kitchen offers a deeper perspective of what it’s prefer to consume meals in prison. While meals are provided, Prodigy and cowriter Kathy Iandoli also tell numerous anecdotes about situations in prison concerning food. Meal prep in jail is very limited, so while this work appeals to anyone who has served time or can be curious about jail life, it also speaks to those that prepare food with limited access to various cooking food luxuries (such as for example college students in dorms). While the function is informational, most importantly it humanizes the prison experience in a way that hasn’t been performed before.