The prison service spends about £2.50 on food for each incarcerated person every day. Along with clothing, blankets, eating utensils, and hygiene products, this provision of these everyday items shapes how people experience incarceration. It also fuels acrimonious public debates about what prison is for and the precarious balance between ‘necessity’ and ‘luxury’. The materiality of daily life encapsulates the tensions between care, respect, and humanity, on the one hand, and punishment and economy, on the other.