Soy-Based Meals Are 'Cruel And Unusual Punishment,' Says Lawsuit From Florida Prisoner Eric Harris
Florida prisoner Eric Harris, 34, currently serving a life sentence for sexual battery on a child, has filed a lawsuit that claims serving soy-laden meals to inmates is a form of cruel and unusual punishment.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Harris claims that the meals of processed and blended soy foods, "have caused painful gastrointestinal cramping" which threaten the health of Harris' thyroid and immune system.
Typical dishes in Harris' Lake Correctional Institution, which include turkey dogs and sloppy Joes, consist of 50 percent soy and 50 percent poultry. Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, told the Sentinel that if soy products were eliminated, the cost to taxpayers would double for inmate food.
Harris' legal fees are being paid by the Weston A. Price Foundation, which, among other goals, discourages the use of soy in foods. The Foundation claims that 500 inmates have complained about the food since 2009, when the Florida prison system started using soy in prisoners' meals in order to cut costs.
According to a press release that was emailed to the Huffington Post by a spokesperson for the Foundation, the "incarcerated are suffering irreparable harm by being fed a high soy diet." The group is also involved in a similar lawsuit in Illinois, in which the lawsuit claims that, in addition to cruel and unusual punishment, feeding soy-based meals to prisoners is also a "denial of plaintiffs' liberty in violation of their due process rights under the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution."
While many sources would argue that soy protein is in fact, good for you, the Weston A. Price Foundation insists that the prison meals contain an excessive amount.
This lawsuit is only one of several recent controversies in the world of prison meals. Another involved the decision to serve prisoners only two meals per day. In October, a Muslim prisoner that claimed the Ohio prison system was denying him meals prepared according to Islamic law.
Word of the Day
Lade: \lād\
Origin: Middle English, from Old English hladan; akin to Old High German hladan to load, Old Church Slavic klasti to place
First Known Use: before 12th century
Verb
transitive verb
1a: to put a load or burden on or in : load; b : to put or place as a load especially for shipment : ship; c : to load heavily or oppressively
2: dip, ladle
intransitive verb
1: to take on cargo : load <a place for ships to lade>
2: to take up or convey a liquid by dipping
Origin: Middle English, from Old English hladan; akin to Old High German hladan to load, Old Church Slavic klasti to place
First Known Use: before 12th century
Verb
transitive verb
1a: to put a load or burden on or in : load; b : to put or place as a load especially for shipment : ship; c : to load heavily or oppressively
2: dip, ladle
intransitive verb
1: to take on cargo : load <a place for ships to lade>
2: to take up or convey a liquid by dipping
More Vocabulary
Cramp: n. sharp abdominal pain
Fourteenth Amendment: n. an amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratified in 1868, defining national citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other persons
Incarcerate: v. to put in prison
Inmate: n. any of a group occupying a single place of residence; especially : a person confined (as in a prison or hospital)
Plaintiff: n. a person who sues another person or accuses another person of a crime in a court of law
Fourteenth Amendment: n. an amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratified in 1868, defining national citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other persons
Incarcerate: v. to put in prison
Inmate: n. any of a group occupying a single place of residence; especially : a person confined (as in a prison or hospital)
Plaintiff: n. a person who sues another person or accuses another person of a crime in a court of law
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