BODIES THAT FEEL HUNGRY: ETHNOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS ON FOOD, PUNISHMENT AND INEQUALITIES IN A FEMALE PRISON CONTEXT

Abstract

This study analyzes the intersection between food, prison labor, human rights, and public policies in the context of the Rio Pardo State Women's Prison (RS), focusing on the eating experiences of incarcerated women. The objective was to understand how the eating practices experienced by these women reflect gender, race, and class inequalities, revealing structural flaws in guaranteeing the right to adequate food. The research adopted a qualitative and ethnographic approach, with weekly visits to the prison unit, use of participant observation, semi-structured interviews with six women working in the kitchen, application of a structured questionnaire and anthropometric assessment with 33 inmates, in addition to Discursive Textual Analysis of the data. The results indicate a scenario of chronic food insecurity, with a predominance of high-calorie and nutritionally poor meals, lack of technical planning, and institutional negligence, configuring systematic violations of human rights. The prevalence of overweight and obesity associated with malnutrition was found, in addition to the experience of subjective forms of hunger, such as “emotional hunger” and “specific hunger.” Food practices in prison have also been shown to be spaces of care, resistance and production of meaning, where cooking is configured as a political and affective act. The study reinforces the urgency of intersectoral public policies that articulate food security, social justice and regional development, repositioning food as a strategic vector of dignity and social reintegration in contexts of deprivation of liberty.