The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 5 letter word CANARY GRASS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
C
A
N
A
R
Y
G
R
A
S
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "that could feed many behind bars" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case that could feed many behind bars = canary grass.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.