Food for inmates in jail costs nothing at the moment it’s served, but the real price tag has three parts: a daily room-and-board charge that many facilities now bill for meals and housing, commissary purchases that typically run $50 to $100 a month, and transaction fees families pay every time they deposit money into an inmate’s account. How much food costs for an inmate in jail depends almost entirely on which of those three apply at a given facility.
The Meals the Jail Provides
Every correctional facility is required to feed the people it holds. Federal policy states that inmates will receive “nutritionally adequate meals, prepared and served in a manner that meets established government health and safety codes.”1Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal Bureau of Prisons Program Statement 4700.07 – Food Service Manual Three meals a day are prepared in bulk and typically served in a communal dining area. Inmates are not charged at the time the food is served.
County jails and state prisons set their own menus, and quality varies enormously. The federal Food Service Manual recommends roughly 2,800 calories per day as a guideline rather than an enforceable mandate. A 2020 survey found that 62 percent of formerly incarcerated respondents said they rarely or never had access to fresh vegetables while locked up. Diets tend to be heavy on salt, sugar, and refined carbohydrates, portions draw constant complaints, and the food is often described as bland. That gap between what’s served and what people actually want to eat is the reason the commissary exists.
When Jails Bill Inmates for Meals and Housing
A detail that catches many families off guard: at least 43 states authorize some form of pay-to-stay billing, where jails assess a daily fee covering housing and food. These charges typically range from about $13 to $80 per day depending on the jurisdiction, and they accumulate for the full length of incarceration.
Some facilities deduct the fees from an inmate’s trust account during the stay. Others send a bill after release and may turn unpaid balances over to collection agencies. Either way, a 30-day jail stay at even a modest daily rate can produce a bill of several hundred dollars, separate from any fines, court costs, or restitution the court imposes. If someone you know is heading to county jail, call the facility directly and ask whether it charges a daily rate and how that amount is collected.
How Much the Commissary Costs
The commissary is a small store run inside the facility. Inmates fill out an order form, submit it during a scheduled window, and receive their items later. Purchases are deducted from an inmate trust account, since inmates aren’t allowed to possess currency. Trust accounts are funded by deposits from family and friends or by wages from work assignments inside the facility.2Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal Bureau of Prisons Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual
Prison jobs, when they pay at all, average roughly 13 to 52 cents per hour, so a full-time assignment might bring in $20 to $40 a month. Most commissary spending is funded by outside deposits.
A realistic monthly commissary budget for someone buying basic snacks, coffee, and hygiene supplies is $50 to $100. Inmates who rely heavily on commissary food to supplement inadequate meals can spend considerably more. Federal prisons cap commissary spending at $360 per month, with a $50 increase allowed during the November/December holiday period.2Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal Bureau of Prisons Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual Individual wardens can set lower limits, and state prisons and county jails set their own caps.
What You Can Buy
The commissary stocks food, drinks, hygiene products, writing supplies, over-the-counter medications, and a few comfort items. Common food purchases include instant ramen noodles, chips, candy bars, coffee, canned tuna, peanut butter, and sodas. Hygiene items like shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste are often only reliably available through the commissary, since facility-issued supplies tend to be minimal.
Why Prices Are So High
Commissary prices run significantly above retail. A package of ramen noodles that sells for about 35 cents at a grocery store can cost anywhere from 24 cents to over a dollar in a prison commissary, with the same brand running 57 cents in one state’s prisons and $1.06 in another. Peanut butter markups above 70 percent have been documented. One investigation found a single denture cup marked up over 600 percent.
These prices exist largely because inmates have no alternative. Commissary operations are typically run by a small number of vendors holding exclusive contracts with state correctional systems, which eliminates any competitive pressure on pricing. The facility or state often receives a commission on every sale, creating a financial incentive to keep prices high rather than negotiate them down. Profits are supposed to go into inmate welfare funds for recreation and programming, but in practice that money often covers expenses that should come out of the facility’s regular budget.
The Fees Families Pay to Send Money
Funding an inmate’s commissary account comes with its own cost. Most facilities contract with a single electronic payment processor, and those processors charge a fee on every deposit. Online deposits typically cost $4 to $12 per transaction depending on the amount sent. The fee structure is regressive, so smaller deposits lose a larger percentage: a $20 deposit with a $4 fee costs the family 20 percent before the inmate sees a dime. Telephone deposits often cost a dollar or two more than online ones, and walk-in retail deposits carry their own fee schedule.
Those fees add up. A family sending $100 per month in two deposits might pay $8 to $20 in fees each month, which works out to roughly $100 to $240 a year just to transfer money. There’s no practical way to avoid the fees entirely. Sending fewer, larger deposits reduces the per-dollar cost.
What Happens if the Account Is Empty
Inmates with little or no money in their trust accounts are generally classified as indigent after keeping a low balance for a set period, often 30 consecutive days. The threshold and timeline vary by facility. Indigent inmates still receive the standard three meals a day, but they typically cannot purchase anything from the commissary.
Most facilities give indigent inmates a basic hygiene kit with soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, and a disposable razor. Some also supply a limited amount of writing paper, envelopes, and postage. Beyond that, indigent inmates can’t supplement poor-quality meals with commissary food, may not have access to adequate hygiene products between kit distributions, and have no way to buy over-the-counter medications. The result is a two-tier reality inside the facility: those with outside financial support eat and live noticeably better than those without it.
Religious and Medical Diets
Federal regulations require the Bureau of Prisons to give inmates a “reasonable and equitable opportunity to observe their religious dietary practice” within budget and security constraints.3eCFR. 28 CFR 548.20 – Dietary Practices To participate, an inmate submits a written statement explaining the religious basis for the request. Halal, kosher, and vegetarian options are the most common religious diets offered. The federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act also protects the right of incarcerated people to practice their faith, which courts have interpreted to include dietary requirements. Religious diets don’t carry an extra charge beyond what the facility already provides.
If an inmate violates the terms of a religious diet program, approval can be withdrawn. After a withdrawal, re-approval can take up to 30 days, and repeated violations can trigger a waiting period of up to one year before the inmate can re-enroll.3eCFR. 28 CFR 548.20 – Dietary Practices
Medical diets for conditions like diabetes, food allergies, or recovery from surgery are handled through the facility’s health services department. Availability varies widely. Some state systems have been criticized for offering no special medical diet for diabetic inmates, forcing people with serious health conditions to rely on commissary purchases to manage what they eat, which pushes the real cost of eating safely back onto the family.