美國監獄伙食差 方便麪身價百倍成最流行貨幣

Instant ramen has always been prized among college students—but a new study reveals that it’s also popular among U.S. inmates.
方便麪在大學生中經常被當做珍貴的東西——但是一項最新研究顯示，在美國的犯人中它同樣很受歡迎。

In fact, The Guardian US reports, the freeze-dried noodles are actually surpassing other popular money substitutes like tobacco，stamps and envelopes as the underground prison currency.
據美國《衛報》報道，事實上方便麪超過其它流行的貨幣替代品，比如香菸，郵票和信封成爲監獄地下交易的新“貨幣”。

Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona School of Sociology, researched the report, which was published by the American Sociological Association on August 22.
美國亞利桑那大學社會學院的學者吉布森·萊特進行了調查，美國社會學於8月22日發表了該報告。

Gibson-Light spent a year interviewing around 60 male inmates and staff members at an anonymous state-run prison. While observing how prisoners dealt with service cutbacks, he noticed that they traded instant ramen packets for food, clothing, toiletries, and services. They even gambled with the noodles during card games.
吉布森·萊特花費了一年的時間在一所匿名州立監獄採訪了近60名犯人和工作人員。在觀察犯人們如何應對服務削減的時候，他發現他們用方便麪交換食品，服裝，盥洗用品和服務。他們甚至在玩紙牌的時候將方便麪作爲交易籌碼。

"Prisoners are so unhappy with the quality and quantity of prison food that they receive that they have begun relying on ramen noodles— a cheap, durable food product—as a form of money in the underground economy," Gibson-Light concluded in a news release. "Because it is cheap, tasty, and rich in calories, ramen has become so valuable that it is used to exchange for other goods."
犯人們對他們那些分量少又不好吃的監獄伙食非常不滿意，於是他們開始依賴方便麪-一種便宜，耐放的食品作爲他們地下經濟的一種新“貨幣”。 吉布森在新聞發佈會上總結說，因爲拉麪比較便宜、味道鮮美，而且熱量充足，它變得非常有價值所以經常被用來交換其它物品。

Inmates used two packs of 59-cent ramen to buy a $11 sweatshirt, or five cigarettes worth $2. Men were sometimes even killed after they purchased ramen from illegal inmate stores on credit and were unable to repay their debts, inmates told Gibson-Light.
犯人們用2包泡麪可以換到價值約11美元的運動衫，或者價值2美元的5支香菸。犯人們告訴吉布森，當有人從非法的同獄犯人處賒購方便麪但是沒有能力償還債務的時候，他們有時候甚至會被殺害。