Florida Prisoner Suing Over ‘Cruel And Unusual’ Soy-Based Meals

November 8, 2011 11:44 AM

Soy beans at the World Organic Trade Fair. Prisoner Eric Harris said too much soy is making him sick. (credit: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images)

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CLERMONT, Fla. (CBS Tampa) – A Florida inmate is suing the state’s prison system for pulling the pork from his meals.

Eric Harris, a 32-year-old convicted pedophile who is serving a life sentence, suggests Lake Correctional Institution’s policy of serving a vegan diet is seriously affecting the quality of his life sentence.

The Weston A. Price Foundation, a special interest group against soy products, will pick up the case’s legal expenses, and announced it has class-action ambitions including other prisoners, prison guards and taxpayers.

The foundation began receiving complaints from Florida prisoners in 2009, when cooks replaced 60-70 percent of meat in meals with soy substitutes. They claimed to suffer from a myriad of health problems, including chronic constipation followed with debilitating diarrhea and vomiting, passing out, heart palpitations, and rashes.

Harris said it’s cruel and unusual punishment.

Joellen Rackleff, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said meals are half soy and half poultry. Serving all meat means the $47 million food budget would double.

Currently, Florida feeds inmates three meals per day for $1.70 per inmate. Rackleff said the department should be mindful of taxpayers who pick up prisoners’ bills when making their meals and offers alternatives to soy.

U.S. courts have said in the past that prisons have to serve nutritious meals, not pretty ones or those that comply with a prisoner’s idea of home cooking.

Rackleff said meals meet those standards and comply with federal nutrition guidelines.

Florida Prisoner Suing Over Cruel And Unusual Soy Based Meals

Dave Turner

You’re not happy with your prison meals and I should care why? Were you expecting to be incarcerated at the Ritz or something?

James

Bwhahahahahahaa
Judgemental A-hole

The pedo most likely wants those beans with tiny weenies in them! Get it? Tiny weenies?

RJ OGuillory

Mr. A-Hole,….

…you fail to understand that the manner in which we treat our “prisoners” is actually of reflection of ourselves and our society!

….Most “prisoners” in the US prisons are not pedophiles, but are most likely non-violent (drug/Gambling), victim-less criminals caught up in “the system”.

..even if the man is a pedophile, he deserves appropriate legal treatment and to be “imprisoned” in a manner that reflects our society’s humane qualities.

…do you all really want to be the guests someday of a “soviet-style-prison camp”,..or do you want a brother, cousin, parent or child sent there?…

…they deserve decent treatment,… or we as a country are as F-O-S as I thought,..

Regards,

RJ O’Guillory
Author-
Webster Groves
Mikey A

Funny comment, man, I think the guy above me takes himself a little too seriously.
AJM2000

A-hole.. I appreciate your joke. I’m currently laughing at it and showing your comment to others. Thank you, and I’m more than happy to give the correct response to a joke, not some diatribe completely unrelated to your comment.

Mike Notsaying

gmo death camps

crosswind

SOY = Toxic, Immune & Health suppression and most of the country eats soy based by-products these days including soy milk, soy protein isolate etc.. AVOID SOY. The research is there.

Chris Romero

The justice system need tort reform immediately; Inmates sue you for feeding them a healthy soy based meal. Then they sue you if you give them real meat because then they get high blood pressure. All you ever hear is the poor inmates….. What about the poor victims in their crimes?

Carlo B.

I in no way support criminals having their prison lives improved, I don’t care if prisoners are getting in fights and beating each other up and getting injured. You can feed them bread water and a multivitamin for all I care if that’s cheaper, but you CANNOT be giving them SOY. Soy is like injecting yourself with estrogen, this will affect them after leaving prison guaranteed, especially if they are eating it on a daily basis. It is like slowly feminizing your body. That being said, may the rest of their sentences be hell on Earth, but no forced soy on men.

jay

wouldn’t that cut down on the violence?

Congress Works For Us

You have never met my wife…
Srikokila

sexonfire Posted on Dont dispute butaeyLooks and lies dont mixYou are styles away from where you need to beBe beautiful, believable and a new beginning

Carnivore with a Brain

you’re very, very wrong. just ask vegan and vegetarian MMA fighters Jon Fitch and Jake Shields about your so-called hypothesis. they’ll cave your skull in.

ROBBOB

I know vegans that aviod soy like the plague
Steve Johnson

and of course those MMA fighters don’t take any supplements whatsoever……

tommy

SOY IS SO BAD FOR YOU

tommy

It causes kidney stones & higher estrogen levels.
monica

so is meat!
Mike Notsaying

gm o d eath c amps
legal texan

Just send moooshell in there to slap the over eaters around!

SueB

You are absolutely right. Many people are allergic to soy, and even more people are sensitive to it but don’t know it. Besides, most of the soy grown in this country is genetically modified, and might as well be poison.

You’re kidding right?

Most tax paying citizens are allergic to prison too. If you’re allergic to soy, might I suggest that you refrain from molesting children?
Robert Korn

SueB, you’re full of it. There is no science to support the Gm products are unhealthy. As a matter of fact GM products allow farmers to use less harmful pesticides and herbicides which make them safer as well as protect out drnking water.
Matthew John Townend

Just type “Argentina GM Woe” to see the effects of Roundup ready GM Soya.
monica

That’s funny because most of the animals that go to slaughter to provide the meat we eat have hormones and are genetically modified and might as well be poisoned. Along with that, there have been studies to show that dairy and meat proteins can kickstart the cancer gene. A vegan diet, with a soy base, is better for you than a meat based diet.
Jim in Houston

Most of us are allergic to pedophiles. He could have been hanged, which to my way of thinking is a much better option.
monica

people are allergic to nuts, chocolate, cheese, etc etc, should we just rid the planet of these things because of it? give me a break. If he’s not swelling up because of it, then he needs to tough it out. He might simply be having gastro issues because his stomach is having to adjust to the change in diet from a very FATTY diet to a more lean diet.
Lola

Robert Korn-
YOU sir, are full of it. There is a HUGE body of evidence that shows GM products can shrink the brain within two weeks and can cause kidney failure.

Not that I care what the prisoners get, but I do not like people spouting baseless information.
marty

Well then, let’s give him bread and water…no soy in that.

keith wren

irrelevant! this dude is a pervert serving a life sentence!
stormy

he’s a pedophile – give him only soy .

Steve Johnson

It’s not just this guy who’s being force fed soy every day. You think he’s alone in that facility? Give your head a shake, he’s simply the one who’s filing the lawsuit. I have no regard whatsoever for a kiddie raper, but the poor guy who cheated on his taxes because his family was eating dog food and got caught is also being experimented on by the corrections department. It’s wrong.

Cancer Warrior

Having had hormone receptive breast cancer (the cancer feeds on estrogen), I don’t touch the stuff either. So why not cancel it for ALL people, not just men.

monica

studies have found that it is meat, and the hormones injected into the animals that jumpstarts our cancer genes, not soy.
Asher

Monica,

People not wanting to eat soy is not some secret attack on vegetarians. Informed people are aware of the dangers of soy AND meat that has been raised cruelly and injected with everything bad known to mankind. I rarely eat meat, but do choose local and organic products if I do. Soy affects me terribly and I cannot eat it.
monica

Thats funny you call yourself informed and me not. You simply are afraid and because soy affects you, you have decided that it affects everyone and is the reason you had cancer. Laughable.

LaVonte d’Ashawn Jackson IV

Aha! Liberal men eat soy all the time. That’s it!
CommunistManifesto

He is not leaving, he has a life sentance
Carlo B. Wrong

But what about all those innocent people that fill the jails?

puppy luv

So it’s a quality of life (sentence) issue? That’s choice.
Mark

I agree with Carlo. A heavy SOY diet is experimental and not healthy. We in the USA used to have higher princaples than the rest of the world and don’t torture our own population with a bad diet. Not everyone in prison is there for violent crime. Many are there for questionable reasons such as probation violation and drug offences. Unfortunately with budgets strapped, few people are going to stand up for prisoner rights, but I feel they are human beings and still have basic rights.

boozy

Ok, does not want the food…no problem, hook him up to the IV’s and end this creeps life…no problem, no food problems, no suckin up taxpayer dollars…etc….mmmm mmmm goood….smoke em
Carnivore with a Brain

those who committed the “lesser” crimes won;t be there long enough for it to matter. and what do you mean by your idiotic statement about non-violent criminals? bernie madoff was a non-violent criminal, but he should be in prison for life…eating SOY instead of fliet mignon.

if you commit a crime, you deserve PUNISHMENT…idiot.

Carnivore with a Brain

*filet
Mark

Bernie madoff should get 3 squares a day. Prison and loss of freedom is the punishment, not a torturous diet. Not to mention all the “white collar” criminals in the the various agencies that should have detected his missing billions. Move to China where they harvest organs of criminals and sentence porn downloaders to death before you call me an idiot you f*ing loser.
Tommy

So yeah the guys who got busted for a bag of pot surely deserve to have irreversible live damage. Dumb Fck.
tommy

liver & kidney damage*
Eduart

Hi, and tanhks for Hi, and tanhks for the question. There is no problem in a room smaller than 700 sq. ft. It will just clean the room more times, which is ideal for asthma problems like I used to have. You might run it on the slower speed (800 sq. ft. is at the high speed which is probably not ideal for sleeping) as the quiet mode in it is probably the best for the bedroom.., Blessings. and most important I hope he gets better.. MR

rjm2238

I’m with you here. The way this country is being feminized, everything is being criminalized, accidents ect, who knows who will be the next person locked up. The courts no longer even need to prove intent to file criminal charges and the cowards making up the juries routinely find all guilty just because they were arrested and the government tells them to.
Disgusting cowards are taking over and I hope they end up “in the joint”.
Rich in New Mexico.

phnx

Don’t want soy, don’t eat it, but don’t expect the taxpaying public to provide you meat, try vegetables. Better yet how about hard tack and water.

Newbern W Johnson

Yeah. I guess that’s why the Chinese and Japanese are having so many health problems. I mean, soy has been a mainstay of their diet for centuries.

tommy

READ: THE CHINA STUDY… THEY HAVE HORRIBLE HEALTH PROBLEMS LINKED TO DIET.

The China Study follows the work of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, from his decades of laboratory experiments on protein consumption, to The China Project, referred to as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” by The New York Times. The China Project examined more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. While revealing that proper nutrition can have a dramatic effect on reducing and reversing these ailments as well as curbing obesity, this text calls into question the practices of many of the current dietary programs, such as the Atkins diet, that are widely popular in the West. The politics of nutrition and the impact of special interest groups in the creation and dissemination of public information are also discussed.
LaVonte d’Ashawn Jackson IV

Silly Tommy,
Liberals can’t read.
monica

The china study showed that meat was bad for you along with dairy, not that soy was bad.
Friar

Tommy, try reading the china study before you use it to tout the fact that you think it’s soy that caused their problems. The China Study shows that the people eating a western diet (meat) are the ones with all the health problems, but the ones eating plant based protein are indeed very healthy.

It’s helpful to read a book before you use it to prove your point, when in fact it knocks your point completely out from under you.

aelfheld

‘Princaples’?

Really?!?

blackcurry

So a lifer pedophile doesn’t like the food he is being served in prison. Who cares? He can turn into a vegetable for all I care. I hope he feels the pain of every child he ever hurt magnified 10 times. Payback is hell, buddy.
J

Of course they do this to somebody that is hateworthy, but imagine you had to do a few years in jail for a very dumb mistake, or even for no reason. I think youll wish you had tried to limit the power of these shadowy private prisons

Klaus

America has 3% of the world’s population and 50% of the world’s prison population. Either we have too many laws or our people are the most wicked on earth. We have so many laws, every American is in violation of at least one of them. The only reason each one of us is not in a prison is only because we have not been caught yet. The privatization of prisons is evil. Running the justice system is one of the few legitimate responsibilities of government. If a government can’t handle it, then that government has to go.

Rico

No, in many other countries of the world they just stand you up to a wall and shoot you or lop your head off in the public squaare.
FederalFarmer1782

We have the disturbed practice of making violations into misdemeanors. Like driving without proof of insurance (note:not without insurance, just without proof on you) is a WA misdemeanor that can land one in jail for up to a year. And we migrate misdemeanors to felonies. Tie that with three strikes and you’re out laws and you end up with a large percentage of people in jail.
Klaus

Rico, you mean like in Mexico and Red China, where the globalists sent our jobs to?

Or do you mean like in Libya, where NATO backs Al Qaeda?

aelfheld

They’re feeding this to all of the prisoners.

Do work on your reading comprehension – it will do so much to prevent you from appearing the fool you are.

J

Modern American private prisons = La Bastille of the French Revolution
http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2011/11/02/children-of-illegal-immigrants-sue-florida-over-states-college-tuition-policy/ Children of Illegal Immigrants Sue Florida Over State’s College Tuition Policy « CBS Tampa

[...] Florida Prisoner Suing Over ‘Cruel And Unusual’ Soy-Based Meals (tampa.cbslocal.com) [...]
al

so feed them pork hearts,tripe and scalded stomach—–the McRib sandwich

azcoyote

I wouldn’t waste a tasty McRib on some pedophile.

SerfCityHereWeCome

A tasty McRib?? I wouldn’t force Jeff Dahmer to eat one.
Gwendylyn

Natasha Posted on Thank you for sharing your story. I’m sorry you are in pain, it’s very very dflcifuit. Try to stay positive and move forward. Peace and blessings, Natasha

Ed

I’m the last person to sympathize with convicted criminals, but food allergies, and in particular soy allergies, can destroy your body. It can lead to Crohn’s disease and many other very lethal diseases. He should be given food that he is not allergic to if doctors confirm his body cannot tolerate it. Not doing so is equivalent to giving him poison and watching him die.

marg1

Who cares what happens to this disgusting piece of garbage? Ed, you’d feel a differently if it had been your child he molested.

Pedophiles can’t be punished enough so I say, “Serve him nothing but soy.”
monica

he hasn’t said he’s allergic to it, just that he’s against the diet. hes whining. you can be allergic to just about any food.

eat this

maybe you will be joined by a Penn State contingent shortly

sean

How many laws did u break today and what is legal today we can make it illegal tommrow so sit tight we will come and get you.
SerfCityHereWeCome

Linebacker U to Brokebacker U…heads, as well as a few pairs of nuts will roll over this.

Glenda McGee

They are poisoning these men, plain and simple. Do you think the rich crooks and tax cheats would ever have to eat that neurotoxin filled garbage?

Sammie Jo

so what if they’re being poisoned? This guy shouldn’t have molested a child if he wanted to be able to pick his own menu.
Tax cheats and pedophiles are not in the same ballpark.

water

There is no basis to have anything against anti-social people if society itself exhibits the same behavior of creating an “us” and “them”.

If we can’t pay more than $1.70 per day to feed someone maybe we’ve got too many people locked up. Something is wrong.

Ed

Excellent point.
marg1

No one is stopping you and your like-minded cronies from sending more money to the government to provide better meals to pedophiles and murderers.

I agree we have too many laws, but some people just don’t even deserve to exist.

If Eric wanted to have a say in his meal selection he should have kept his creepy, slimy hands off innocent children.

nam_vet6869

This is true, I think they should get two Baloney Sandwiches a day and fruit for breakfast and I also think they should have to pay for their room and board, they can work for .10 an hour to do so.

Captain Crunch

I seriously question what they are doing with 47 million dollars per year. Either the money is being embezzled (no surprise!) or being mismanaged. I don’t think thats right feeding them soy. It is cruel and inhumane, especially if you weren’t raised on it and there are questionable health risks.
Quacker Oats

And HOW MANY people are in jail because of our government’s failed war on drugs? Instead of paying to incarcerate otherwise law abiding citizens they lock them up for years and years instead of trying to rehabilitate them. Most users are non violent.

Jim in Houston

You apologists always come out of the wood word when some dirt bag criminal whines about the food or his alleged bad treatment. You are a part of the problem.

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[...] [...]
Flo Steele

Oh the Soy is causing this because its made with “Genetically Modified Organisms, ” GMOs. Yep, rashes, allergies to name a few. Thanks to Govt sponsored Monsanto.

aelfheld

It is? And what proof do you have to support your assertions?
Hind

xTimeCheer65 on November 7, 2011 My foivrate food has to be crab and lobster! i love it! Haha.Thanks for this giveawayy!!good luck everyone!

Roadk9

For all you bleeding hearts out there, you can send as much money as you like to these criminals to help them buy what you and they think they should eat. But if you think for one second you’re going to convince those of us who are forced to not only pay for their food but also pay to fix the damages and problems they cause you are fools.

Citizen

I guess that leaves no choice but to not convict unless the crime is truly outrageous.

sean patriot

No, It means we start shooting them in the head, right after we kill all the liberal lawers and judges and activists

Rito’s World

we pay for sex change operations as it is, why not let the process take a natural course. soy, the new don’t eat or we”ll tell.

Itti

what does that means you make it like eitpoiha won a world cup that team is eitpoiha foot ball federation seporting more than our national team { this news is just madness when i read it i am think in { birtukan mideksa ) she going out of prison

You’re kidding right?

I have just had it with reading about the ‘rights’ of other people that I am paying for. I’m sorry…. you’re a convicted pedophile. I don’t care about your rights. It would seem to me, when you chose to do whatever you chose to do to a young child, you gave up your rights. As a taxpayer- I’m sick of paying for you. What about MY rights and how my tax dollars are spent? They could feed you cat food and I wouldn’t care. You should count your blessings if the least of your worries are soy issues. And lastly, it is a HUGE slap in the face to every tax paying citizen for you to be moaning about your ‘quality of your life sentence’ while we all struggle to pay to put food on our own table while we pay for your sorry a@# with our confiscated tax dollars.
Mike_88

Eating too much soy as a male really does give you roid rage symptoms.

Females brought up on the stuff tend to grow with masculine features (adam’s apples and hairy).

As for the soy company picking up the tab, it is another concern for industry over humanity and that is plain wrong.

Peoples bodies have different needs to sustain themselves and if he needs pork even though the defense is claiming the price of poultry, he should have pork.

Plenty of hog problems across the nation. Free pork. Tag it, and bag it.

ROBBOB

NO, don’t give them wiild boar, that is far better than farm raised pig. Give them pigs, we keep boar. Wild boar is extremely lean but tasty.

binc

Bread and water thrown through a small trap door is quite good enough for criminals.
aelfheld

Poor little things. This is just awful. They’re being treated like criminals.

Oh, wait . . .
sean patriot

Our prison system is indicative of the way America has become due to liberalism. WEAK AND PATHETIC. Give them spam sandwhiches and water

aelfheld

Spam spam spam spam. Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
SerfCityHereWeCome

Better yet, only Spam that expired before 1962.

anon

“Bread and water thrown through a small trap door is quite good enough for criminals.”

And this is why your country has no moral high ground, even compared to Al Qaeda, even HAMAS gave that kidnapped solider 3 square meals a day.

Americans are worse than HAMAS.

RUFUS LEVIN

HAMAS WOULD NOT HAVE GIVEN HIM PORK EITHER, DOOFUS.
aelfheld

Either you didn’t bother to look at the pictures of Gilad Shalit after his release or you’re a d—-d liar.

Al Qaeda and company don’t bother much with feeding their prisoners – not much need to feed someone after you’ve sawed his head off.

anon

And yet, you condemn them. You have no moral high ground Americans. HAMAS treats its prisoners better than you treat yours.

marg1

Americans haven’t beheaded or stoned anyone lately.

Americans are NOT worse than Hamas. Well, maybe our president is…

anon

Oh marg1, people such as yourself I have endless sympathy for. The endless soundbytes, the need for a snappy retort, you are a product of the media you consume.

To draw the comparison between the atrocities of the American War Machine and a group of desert dwellers defending their homeland from invasion is not a product of you own though, but what you have been told to believe. It is the same as drawing the comparison between abortion and any other type of surgery, they are not the same thing at all.

tommy

True enough. They are poisoning us through vaccines that sterilize & copyrighted foods that are more or less poison. Even china wont allow GMO’s and they put plastic in baby food.
Dawgmeister

The voice of ignorance braying in the darkness. The inmates in the Florida Department of Corrections DO get three squares daily, and if conditions merit, they get more. Speaking of Hamas, the Mexicans have a word that sounds exactly the same, spelled with a “J” instead of an “H”. It means “Never Again”, as in “No Future”, “Looser”… What an appropriate name for that band of losers.
Oh, and as for “moral high ground”, Ground level has you guys beat all to heck and back. Go pound sand, sweetie!

anon

You have made no compelling argument. This is a denial of food and human rights, do you not believe in the equality of man? To bring up nonsense like Mexican terminology and pounding sand….How far from your founding principles you have become. The shining city on the hill turned out to be nothing more than a blinking bar-room light with the repeated word KILL KILL KILL.