Steady Diet Of Appalling Prison Food Could Be Cruel And Unusual Punishment

Terrence Prude alleged that staff of the Milwaukee County Jail had subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment because they fed him nothing but nutriloaf, which Judge Posner of the 7th Circuit described as 'a bad-tasting food given to prisoners as a form of punishment', for periods of seven to ten days at a time. Prude alleged that this steady diet caused vomiting, stomach pains, constipation, 'alarming' weight loss and possibly an anal fissure ('which is no fun at all', in the words of the learned judge).

Summary judgment was initially granted in favour of the defendants, but Judge Posner thought this was wrong: their response to the suit was 'contumacious' in that they ignored the self-represented Prude's discovery demands and the court's order to comply with them. The defendants' evidence on summary judgment was a 'preposterous' hearsay assertion that nutriloaf 'has been determined to be a nutritious substance for regular meals'. The fact that Prude had sued