Nevada prison officials unsure of impact by inmate diet ruling

Nevada prison officials says they have to wait for the Chief Medical Officer’s findings before they know the impact of a Supreme Court order criticizing the diet they feed inmates.

The three-justice panel ruled prison officials aren’t providing inmates with a healthy diet and haven’t complied with past orders to set a nutrition standard and show they’re meeting that standard.

Prison officials issued a statement saying the department isn’t a party to the action filed by inmate Robert Leslie Stockmeier, “but the NDOC can anticipate being affected by the Chief Medical Officer’s future findings as to dietary standards.”

The justices said the record indicates the diet provided inmates contains excessive amounts of fat and sodium in violation of the standards set by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Medicine.

“The standard proffered does not deem adequate a diet with an unlimited quantity of sodium,” the order states.

A spokesman for the department said they won’t know the financial impact of that ruling until the state health officer reviews the dietary guidelines and rules on what the prison system needs to do.