Nutraloaf

Nutraloaf

A serving of Nutraloaf
Alternative names	Prison loaf, disciplinary loaf, food loaf, lockup loaf, confinement loaf, seg loaf, grue, special management meal
Type	Meal
Course	Main
Place of origin	United States, Canada
Serving temperature	Hot
Variations	n/a

Nutraloaf (also known as prison loaf, disciplinary loaf, food loaf, lockup loaf, confinement loaf, seg loaf, grue or special management meal) is a food served in prisons in the United States and Canada to inmates who have misbehaved; for example, assaulting prison guards or fellow prisoners. It is similar to meatloaf in texture, but has a wider variety of ingredients. Prison loaf is usually bland, perhaps even unpleasant, but prison wardens argue that nutraloaf provides enough nutrition to keep prisoners healthy without requiring utensils to be issued.

There are many recipes which include a range of food, from vegetables, fruit, meat, and bread or other grains. The ingredients are blended and baked into a solid loaf. In one version, it is made from a mixture of ingredients that include ground beef, vegetables, beans, and bread crumbs. Other versions include mechanically separated poultry and "dairy blend".

Although nutraloaf can be found in many United States prisons, its use is controversial. It was mentioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 in Hutto v. Finney while ruling that conditions in the Arkansas penal system constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners were fed "grue", described as "a substance created by mashing meat, potatoes, oleo[margarine], syrup, vegetables, eggs, and seasoning into a paste and baking the mixture in a pan". The majority decision delivered by Justice Stevens upheld an order from the 8th Circuit Court that the grue diet be discontinued.

The standards of the American Correctional Association, which accredits prisons, discourage the use of food as a disciplinary measure, but adherence to the organization's food standards is voluntary. Denying inmates food as punishment has been found to be unconstitutional by the courts, but because the loaf is generally nutritionally complete, it is sometimes justified as a "dietary adjustment" rather than a denial of proper meals.