Ramen noodles: The unexpected gold standard in prison currency
Odd News
Ramen noodles: The unexpected gold standard in prison currency
It’s not cafeteria food — it’s cold, hard cash. Ramen noodles have now become the most valuable “currency” among U.S. prisoners — overtaking the more traditional cigarettes, stamps and envelopes — a study reveals. Due to budget cuts bringing about a decline in prison food standards, instant noodles are no longer the staple of just American dorm rooms, their value has risen dramatically in the underground economy within prisons, according to Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona who was behind the investigation.
Because it is cheap, tasty, and rich in calories, ramen has become so valuable that it is used to exchange for other goods.
Gibson-Light
Other goods that serve as alternative forms of currency include other foods, clothing, hygiene products and even services, such as cleaning an inmate’s bunk or doing a prisoner’s laundry. Ramen noodles are also used as gambling chips. Though Gibson-Light’s field of inquiry so far has only related to his study at a single prison, he refers to other studies that indicate that the trend is happening elsewhere. He said that ramen currency had been noted in prisons regardless of whether tobacco was forbidden and that it transcended prisoner security levels, cliques and racial groups.
The form of money is not something that changes often or easily, even in the prison underground economy; it takes a major issue or shock to initiate such a change.
Gibson-Light
