During a recent episode of the Secretary Kennedy podcast, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and boxing legend Mike Tyson turned their conversation to a subject that draws little public attention: the connection between prison food and violence behind bars.
Kennedy opened the exchange by recalling his own time locked up. In the summer of 2001, he was placed in maximum security prison in Puerto Rico after a protest involving the United States Navy.
He described the food as “really bad” before laying out a figure that stopped the conversation cold: “The price that the federal prison system pays for food for prisoners is about 60 cents a day.”
Tyson then wondered what 60 cents could realistically buy. He said, “And what can you buy with 60 cents? Candy, sugar.”
He then drew from his own experience behind bars, stating. Tyson stated, “When I was in prison, on the commissary we had donuts, sugar, potato chips, nothing healthy. Maybe the healthiest thing there was the contaminated soup that we ate. Over salted soup. But it was all horrible stuff.”
Tyson was blunt about what he believes that diet produces. He said, “That’s why it’s violent in prison because of the food that they’re feeding them. That’s why you see everybody’s getting stabbed and cut for no reason. It’s little small incidents, people want to fight and k*ll people. And that’s what it is because of the ultra-processed food.”
Kennedy pointed to research supporting that view. He stated, “There are studies that show that when you improve the food in the prison, when you start giving the prisoners real food, the level of violence drops by 50%. Disciplinary problems drop by 50%. In juvenile detention facilities, the use of restraints drops by 70%.”
Tyson agreed and pushed the argument further. Hesaid, “They feed them like they treat them like animals. You can’t have that old school of prisoning people and jailing people. You have to have some kind of outlet.”
He continued, “They have to have programs there so they prepare for the outside world. You can’t put a guy in there, he’s figh ting and cutting and doing all this stuff eating horrible food, then let him go. It’s like taking a wild tiger and all of a sudden holding him in a cave for 10 years then letting him out. What is he going to do? K*ll people again.”
Both men agreed the problem reaches far beyond prison walls. Tyson, who grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, described the food environment he was raised in: “I come from a neighborhood where processed food is a delicacy. Ultra processed food is a delicacy.”
His message to the American public was direct. Tyson said, “Have some pride and take care of yourself and have some dignity and leave that ultra-processed food alone. Everybody’s going to eat some of it, but if you’re going to eat it, try some moderation.”
