Fifteen years ago, the BBC reported that a double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that adding vitamins to the diets of inmates at a maximum security institution cut offences by 25%. The greatest reduction was for serious offences, including violence which fell by 40%.
This in no way surprises me. I had this thought a year or so ago that we ought to provide better nutrition in prison as a primary means of rehabilitation. I think I tried to blog about it and it didn't go well. I eventually moved on.
But I am glad to see this article. I hope this idea gets acted upon, the sooner, the better.
I know and have known so many non-convicted people who turn angry, grumpy and sometimes violent when they are even 30 to 60 minutes late eating a meal. One person in particular sticks out. I could easily see how if his diet were suddenly cut of essential vitamins and nutrients he'd most certainly have the same effect without knowing why. In my head I'd equate the results of such a thing happening being even worse because of the compounding frustration and lack of understanding for why coupled with the feeling of not having eaten a proper, hunger satiating meal.
Now imagine those people living on basically coffee, cigarettes and sugar. I remember reading the original BBC article years ago and that’s what they found a significant population of inmates were doing.
After adding basically a 100% RDA vitamin and a fish oil pill, many of them reported being amazed to discover having self control for the first time in their lives.
even worse because of the compounding frustration and lack of understanding for why coupled with the feeling of not having eaten a proper, hunger satiating meal.
In the case of the current prison population, it is even worse than that because they are simply assumed to be violent, maladjusted etc and no one at all wonders if their health impacts it, even in cases where they have a diagnosis of being HIV positive or having TB. When a middle class person is having a health crisis and acts out, the odds are good that people will cut them some slack and hope they feel better soon. When a prisoner does so, hey, he is just a criminal with no redeeming value and we should lock him up and throw away the key.
I'm sure it's written somewhere, tucked away, that keeping prisoners, captives or other types of incarcerated criminals and POW's on a bare minimum diet (2000 calories maybe?) sets a certain sort of tone to either get a desired effect out of those locked away or make them vulnerable to questioning if not reduced to only having enough energy for one short burst of energy in the event of a physical altercation.
Of course this has to be against all sorts of laws and conventions so I doubt it's publicly traded knowledge but the whole idea reminds me of the grey area psychologists and interrogation specialists tend to talk about when topics like water boarding and other torture / effective interrogation methods are questioned.
About three months ago I started taking 1500mg elemental of magnesium per day as 500mg magnesium chelate capsules providing 10mg elemental (15 capsules per day) for about a month. I've dropped back to maintenance dose of between 600 and 1200mg elemental per day.
Historically, I have a couple of basic assault charges, an assault with sexual intent charge, I was charged with two counts of trafficking a controlled drug (later dropped), ~13 year history of meth-amphetamine use and abuse. I've always had a short fuse, quick to anger, often frustrated, easily startled. My primary school nickname was "Psycho".
More recently I've started taking 6000 - 10,000 IU of Vitamin D as well.
Now, I know what I am, and I'll tell you: my moral compass; it's fucked. But since I've been taking a boat load of magnesium and D I feel way more calm and in control; I can easily shrug off all sorts of things that have historically rubbed me the wrong way. Suicidal ideation as completely disappeared, I don't feel anxious or depressed any more.
The difference has been night and fucking day.
I was never officially diagnosed, but one of my sisters has a Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis, I've recently convinced her to start taking the same regime. She commented just two days ago that someone dropped something next to her at the supermarket that made a loud noise, where in the past she would have jumped out of her skin and felt disturbed for the rest of the day, this time she didn't even flinch.
When I am throwing up or feverish, I rapidly get magnesium deficient. It makes me both noise and light sensitive. The noise sensitivity side effect of magnesium deficiency is well known in some alternative remedy circles I used to hang in. When I start complaining about noise, we work at getting magnesium into me via food choices like cashews or dark chocolate. Chocolate covered cashews are on today's grocery list because I have been mildly light and noise sensitive for days and we failed to get them yesterday.
If you need magnesium, you probably also need calcium, vitamin D and vitamin K. IIRC, magnesium and calcium should be taken in a 2 to 1 ratio. Since you have already added vitamin D, you might consider adding calcium and vitamin K.
Like magnesium, calcium is another mineral known to have calming effects.
If you are up for additional experimenting, search for Celtic Sea Salt. It is sold online. It is not only a high quality salt, it has a high percentage of micro nutrients. I no longer need it, in part because I moved to a coastal area where those nutrients are available for free in the very air, but it played a critical role in my healing process, especially when combined with the right carbs (aloe or potato, basically) and healthy fats, like MCT oils.
~13 year history of meth-amphetamine use and abuse.
FWIW, I view this is as self medicating for unidentified health issues (whether physical or mental health or both). I firmly believe treating the underlying health issues can help put a stop to it.
My father drank very heavily for years while he was in the military. He quit after he left the military. He did so without ever going to any kind of treatment program. This fact has had a strong influence on my views of addiction. I do not buy the 12 step program model of demonizing both drugs and the people who take them. I think that model is actually harmful to people and makes the problem worse. I firmly believe drug use is done for a reason and if you can resolve the root causes behind it, it can just stop because you don't need it anymore, without necessarily doing any wrestling with it.
Edit:
often frustrated,
For me, severe frustration is evidence of a selenium deficiency.
I wonder how much of an effect nutrition has on causing people to become criminals (and other anti-social behavior) in the first place.
I remember reading an article here a few years ago saying that in a lot of low-income neighbourhoods in the US, the only food options are relatively unhealthy. There are no proper grocery stores nearby, and the residents can’t afford to travel further to them, so they are stuck eating whatever unhealthy and low nutrition food the local corner store has (e.g. frozen fries and pasta instead of fresh fruit and vegetables).
I have a serious medical condition that makes it difficult to get the nutrients I need. I fairly often have somatopsychic side effects from this. I resolve those issues by figuring out what nutrient I need extra of.
The incident that caused me to think that nutrition should be part of prison rehab was one where I was just inexplicably mad as hell and we resolved it by feeding me an orange every day for the vitamin C. I was like "Holy cow! I bet just getting the right nutrients into prisoners would make them less prone to violence and other problem behaviors."
So as a wild guess: This is probably a significant factor.
This in no way surprises me. I had this thought a year or so ago that we ought to provide better nutrition in prison as a primary means of rehabilitation. I think I tried to blog about it and it didn't go well. I eventually moved on.
But I am glad to see this article. I hope this idea gets acted upon, the sooner, the better.