tusb.stanford.edu / CC

Vegan prisoners in the U.K. have just won the right to order cruelty-free hygiene products, including essentials such as shampoo and sunscreen. So, you might say that the incarcerated vegans¹ will now be protected in their right to bare arms (ba-dum, ching!).

The Vegan Prisoners Support Group has successfully petitioned for inmates to have access to nuts and dairy alternatives as well. Next up? Vegetarian shoes, of course.

While I don't know the state of lip balm in U.S. prisons, I do know which states have the tastiest vegetarian prison food²—and you can check out our celebrated Top 10 List here.

Written by Amanda Schinke

1. Incidentally, the name of my next band.
2. Spoiler: It's Idaho.

e6townhall / CC

Considering how factory farms (mis)treat pigs—cramming them into filthy pens and confining mothers to gestation crates—it's not hard to see farms as porcine prisons.

So, naturally, when we heard that a prison in McLeansville, North Carolina, was slated for closure, we quickly dispatched a letter to Governor Bev Purdue to ask for her help in turning the soon-to-be-mothballed slammer into the world's first pig empathy museum.

The new museum would be a win-win: It would provide much-needed jobs, plus it would help people better understand pigs and the suffering that factory farms cause them. Visitors could then put what they've learned into practice by enjoying meatless "riblets" or other vegetarian fare, and the kids would take home one of our "Animals Are My Friends" T-shirts.

We think that once people get to know pigs—when people see that pigs are smart, sensitive, and generally adorable—they won't stand idly by when innocent oinkers are treated like hardened criminals.

Written by Jeff Mackey

marlerblog / CC

After being jailed on drug trafficking and conspiracy charges, Michel Lapointe was released early from his incarceration in Montréal. Why? Because—no joke—he was too obese to fit into the jail's furniture.

Lapointe's lawyer argued that the prison's mattresses, chairs, and benches were too small for a man of Lapointe's size and therefore caused him to suffer unfairly. He pointed out that Lapointe increased in size from around 300 lbs. to more than 400 lbs. after his arrest, blaming the weight gain, in part, on the greasy prison diet. Well, we know of some prisons where this just isn't a problem.

To try to prevent this from happening again, we've sent a letter to the head of the prison inviting him to switch the inmates to an all-vegetarian diet, which would vastly increase the chances of keeping the inmates lean, healthy, and safely behind bars. The prison (and taxpayers) could save money on meals and reduce inmates' health care costs, and the public would sleep a little better knowing that criminals of all sizes are where they belong.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

Written by Sean Conner