KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Apparently eating pork is a freedom nearly 206,000 federal inmates will no longer be afforded. According to news reports, officials with the Federal Bureau of Prisons were shackled by costs as well as a survey of inmates whose votes contributed to the decision to no longer offer pork-related food on federal prison menus.

With the fiscal year expiring in October, the upcoming year’s menu includes: hamburger, chicken, spaghetti, fish tacos and chicken-fried rice. Vegetarian options include hummus and tofu-fried rice.
According to an online report published by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the decision to change the menu had nothing to do with the dietary requirements of Muslim or Jewish inmates. In fact, federal inmates still have the option of purchasing pork products from prison commissaries, said the Star-Telegram report. Meanwhile, some state prisons have established pork- or poultry-production and processing facilities that are run by inmates to produce food for their facilities.

Dave Warner, a spokesman with the National Pork Producers Council encourages granting the decision makers a pardon in the menu decision. “For people who are incarcerated, we understand they’re denied certain rights and freedoms, but we don’t think bacon should be one of them,” he told the Star-Telegram.  

Read the entire report here