What Products Have the Highest Sales in Prisons?

Honey buns — those intensely sweet, golden-glazed pastry snacks — are the currency du jour in Florida prisons, with Florida inmates buying more honey buns than cigarettes or Coke® — more 270,000 buns a month. They are used to barter for everything from prescription drugs to Social Security numbers, and at least two honey bun-related stabbings have been reported.

More facts about honey buns in prison:

• Florida's inmates aren't the only ones with a love affair with honey buns. North Carolina's inmates use the buns to flavor fermented orange juice and even to make birthday cakes.


• Honey buns are also a common request for last meals, and one inmate paid his public defender lawyers in honey buns when he was saved from the electric chair.


• When the price of honey buns went up a few cents, many prisoners complained, and relatives of the inmates even wrote angry letters to the prisons.