Introduction: Prison foodways. International and multidisciplinary perspectives.

The role of prison food for those in custody has long been either underestimated, or a narrow subject approached from the vantage point of nutritionists. This special issue on prison food, tackles extant knowledge gaps by highlighting the scope of interdisciplinary scholarship, and studies of prison foodways that operate at the intersection of several disciplines. As an introduction to this special issue, we highlight the symbolic role of food as an underestimated feature of the prison environment. For many prisoners, the restrictive detention conditions give food a greater significance than it has outside: food can, and does, condition life in prison and, in many respects, symbolises the custodial experience (Smith, 2002).