For “less than the cost of a value meal at McDonald’s” — $2.51 — the Michigan Department of Corrections provides three meals a day to each of the nearly 50,000 prisoners in the state system, said spokesman Russ Marlin.

With careful purchasing and planning by agency food service people, Marlin said, the state spends close to $1 million a week feeding prisoners, and rising costs are hitting the department budget.

“For this year the food increase is $1.46 million and the fuel and utility increase is $1.6 million. We will need $3 million more just to stay at current levels.”