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Animal rights activists and former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has urged an Australian prison boss to serve vegan meals in a bid to reduce violence in correctional facilities.
Anderson wrote to New South Wales Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin with her request.
No harm
Writing in her capacity as Honorary Director of animal rights charity PETA, Anderson said: “I read about your plan to rehabilitate female inmates through mindfulness exercises and yoga and wanted to make a suggestion that could further help embrace nonviolence, switching to nutritious vegan meals in your correctional facilities.
“Not only would providing vegan food honor one of the driving principles of yoga – ahimsa (doing no harm) – by sparing animals lives, it could also help improve the health of the women in your facilities while decreasing long-term healthcare costs.”
Case study
Anderson cited Arizona’s Maricopa County Jail, which switched to a meat free diet in 2015, and said there had been economic benefits.
She wrote: “Maricopa County Jail switched to all-vegetarian food for its 8,000 inmates and reported a saving of US$273,000.
“In 2015, I went there with representatives of PETA US to serve lunch to the prisoners, who were impressed with the freshness and quality of the food.”
