Prison calls it food, inmates disagree

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Is this food cruel and unusual?
March 25: Vermont's Supreme Court heard an appeal Monday in a case about a special bread, Nutraloaf, the Vermont Department of Corrections feeds inmates in specific situations, which prisoners claim is cruel and unusual punishment. WPTZ's Mary Morin reports.

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Instead, Kuehl said, it's as if a correctional officer were to find an inmate with a knife. He wouldn't have to hold a hearing to take the knife away.

"It's taking an administrative action to protect the facility," said Kuehl.

Afterward, the inmate can be subject to a separate disciplinary hearing for the conduct that led to being fed nutraloaf.

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Most Vermont inmates given nutraloaf have used their eating utensils to throw body waste. Nutraloaf, however, is served on a simple piece of paper, removing from the inmate's reach the utensils that can be used to store the waste before it is thrown.

Hofmann said Vermont prisons average about one nutraloaf episode a month.

Christopher Williams, 29, who is charged in a 2006 school shooting that killed two people in Essex, was given nutraloaf after he'd assaulted guards and smeared excrement in his cell.

Since then, his name hasn't appeared on the list of inmates given nutraloaf.

"His name was nowhere to be found," Hofmann said. "I presume it was effective."

What do you think?

Vote: Should prisons use nutraloaf to control behavior?