How Does a Vegan Diet Affect Inmates?

We know the benefits that a plant-based diet can have on the planet and our bodies.

But what about our minds, and our capacity to commit crime?

Pennsylvania state prisons, from November, will start monitoring the change in behaviour of 200 volunteer inmates at each facility as they transition to a plant-based diet.

This ‘experiment’ falls under a wider initiative which was created by retired State Trooper Matt Harris. The purpose of this project, called ‘The Redemption Project’, is to keep ‘at-risk’ children from falling into crime, but has also created this new experimental limb to see the effects of cutting out animal-products on current inmates.

Harris said specifically of the plant-based experiment that the purpose is to “[see] if the diet changes their behaviour in prison, and we think it does.”

Those inmates volunteering will be regularly checked by health professionals who will determine the participants’ glucose and sugar levels through regular blood tests. They are hoping to see how a vegan diet can improve both health and anti-social behaviour.

The change to diet will be accompanied by job skills training as the inmates approach the end of their term in prison, including induction onto green programmes and culinary training (we hope using plant-based foods!).

Harris hopes that helping offenders find careers as chefs, in green cleaning and landscaping (among others) will be greatly beneficial, particularly to inmates with less than two years to serve, and that this training and adoption of a plant-based diet will “help them stay out” of prison.

So, could it be true that cutting out animal products physically and mentally improves people and creates law-abiding citizens?

Given previous reports of how difficult it can be coping as a vegan in prison, this is certainly promising and exciting news, and we eagerly await the verdict of the experiment.

Frankly, even if the results are inconclusive, encouraging 200 more people to go vegan is well-worth doing!

Image Credit: Counter Current News |  SCDC Inmates Search Online