Obese Inmate Sues Jail Because He's Lost 100 Pounds

[CatWoman]

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — An inmate awaiting trial on a murder charge is suing the county, complaining he has lost more than 100 pounds because of the jailhouse menu.

Broderick Lloyd Laswell says he isn't happy that he's down to 308 pounds after eight months in the Benton County jail. He has filed a federal lawsuit complaining the jail doesn't provide inmates with enough food.

According to the suit, Laswell weighed 413 pounds when he was jailed in September. Police say he and a co-defendant fatally beat and stabbed a man, then set his home on fire.

"On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out," Laswell wrote in his complaint. "About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again."

But Laswell then goes on to complain that he undertakes little vigorous activity.

"If we are in a small pod all day (and) do next to nothing for physical exercise, we should not lose weight," the suit says. "The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death."

The suit also asks that the county be ordered to serve hot meals. The jail has served only cold food for years.

The meals, provided through Aramark Correctional Institution Services, average 3,000 calories a day, jail Capt. Hunter Petray told The Morning News of northwest Arkansas for a story Saturday.

A typical Western diet consists of 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day.

Laswell's suit was filed without a lawyer in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/28/obese-inmate-sues-jail-be_n_98960.html

[Andy823]

1. Hell he should be paying them!

People pay good money to go places and lose that kind of weight, he should be glad he is getting if for free!

[Warpy]

3. Ha! The "sock a cop" diet!

I foresee a money making proposition for county lockups with empty cells.

[Fridays Child]

7. So, it's okay for jailers to dietarily harm the health of the inmates? Because...

...that's what he may well be getting for free, as you put it.

[MadHound]

15. How is this inmate being "dietarily harmed"?

He's getting the right amount of calories in his diet. Granted, his diet may not be balanced, but the simple fact is he's losing weight because he is now taking in a normal amount of calories, not three or four times the normal amount.

That's not dietarily harmful, that's actually a healthful thing for this person.

[Horse with no Name]

40. Actually when you weigh that much

your dietary requirements would be higher than for the normal weight person. While an 1800 calorie diet may be okay for a normal person, this person would probably need a 3500 calorie diet...of course he would need a nutrition consult.
For someone this size, this is NOT a healthy way to lose weight...because this man is being starved by definition...and in thus doing, can result in organ damage because the body will break down muscle.

[Wizard777]

42. He's getting the right amount of calories for a normal healthy person. Which he is not.

Rapid weight loss is a severe threat to anyones life. Also when you have a person who's body has become accustomed to FUNCTIONING on a 15,000 calorie meals. Like a scuba divers' body becomes accustomed to functioning different air mixtures and atmospheric pressure. If you bring them down to a 1,500 calorie meal too quickly. It's just like bringing the scuba diver up too quickly. Both are deprived of what their body needs to function and therefore may not. You can hurt them bad and possibly even kill them. The order is not automatically restored to their systems. There are other dysfunctions that will occur. He's suffering the obesity equivalent of the bends.

I'm very tall. I also can not survive on the standard 1,500 calorie diet. Some people will feed their family with a 5lb. roast. Around here a 5lb. roast is MINE! LOL This giant has a big heart and a big stomach that needs lots of food just keep me svelte.

[Dorian Gray]

49. But they are serving him

3000 calories a day, not 1500.

[Fridays Child]

44. On 3,000 calories a day, a sedentary person should not experience...

...chronic hunger, rapid weight loss, and dizziness. Assuming that disease as been ruled out by the medical staff, there's something wrong with this picture. Of course, considering that Aramark, the Halliburton of institutional food services, has the concession, we can be absolutely positive that the inmates' nutritional requirements are being fully met. Yeah, right. :eyes:

[Dorian Gray]

48. At 3000 calories a day?

I doubt that he'll starve. That's ridiculous.

[Fridays Child]

51. See #44.

[Dorian Gray]

58. Yeah....

after reading the thread through, I thought that maybe the numbers were elevated or the food may not have been that nutritious.

I do hope that they are testing him for possible illnesses. But, if a doctor does evaluate him and says that the weight loss is beneficial to his needs, then I hope that it's dropped.

[hlthe2b]

2. I'll avoid the obvious.... but this guy could also be losing weight

because he has developed diabetes. I do hope they are monitoring that, even though it is easy to be flippant about the man's complaints.

[BlooInBloo]

4. hahaha!!!

[Fridays Child]

8. This is funny because...

? :(

[BlooInBloo]

9. Oh just cut to the chase and let loose with your righteous outrage. No need to dance.

[Fridays Child]

43. That's what I thought.

You have no excuse.

[The Inquisitive]

57. win

:thumbsup:

[CatWoman]

20. Hi Bloo

:hi:

:loveya:

[BlooInBloo]

23. Hiya!

:blush:

:)

[Fridays Child]

5. It is actually possible for an obese person to be undernourished.

He may well be losing weight and suffering from a degradation of his overall health because of jailhouse food. If that's the case, the authorities should not be allowing it to happen.

[eShirl]

6. 100 pounds weightloss in 8 months sounds a little too fast...

According to what I've always heard, to be healthy you should not be losing more than 5-10 pounds per month. And at that guy's weight, it should probably also be under a doctor's supervision.

[MiniMe]

19. I agree, that was my first thought. If he was losing at a healthy rate, no problem

but 100 lbs in 8 months is way too fast.

[CatWoman]

21. on the other hand, Jeffrey Dahmer gained a lot of weight

once he began eating prison food :think:

[MiniMe]

22. Different prison?

If you take somebody who works our regularly, and then don't provide them with a way to exercise and feed them the same food, they will gain weight. A 400lb person actually needs more calories than a normal person just to maintain. Thats not to say that his losing weight is a bad thing, but the rate of weight loss is too fast. Of course, it doesn't say if he went on a hunger strike of any kind, somehow I doubt it.

[snooper2]

29. that's bullshit...

ever watch "Biggest Loser"?

[Warpy]

33. Initial weight loss in the morbidly obese is usually rapid

but as any dieter knows, it's that last 5-25 pounds that are impossible to shed.

[eShirl]

56. no

[Xithras]

35. Most doctors put the upper limit at 2lbs a week.

Still, there's a serious question about whether a jail should be forced to, or even have the legal ability to, put this guy on some sort of supervised diet. What if he said that he WANTED to stay at that weight? Should the jail be forced to continue feeding him unhealthy amounts of food?

[Demobrat]

10. As long as he's getting the same amount of food and exercise as everybody else

I don't see that he has a case.

[Wcross]

11. He is getting 3000 calories a day with little physical activity.

Is that not adequate? He is not doing any physical labor. As long as the food is nutritional I see no need to feed an inmate over 3000 calories a day. If he wanted to have more he should have refrained from murder & arson.

He is losing less than a half pound per day or 15 pounds a month which is not starvation considering his ideal weight should be under 200 pounds.

[Dogtown]

16. Innocent until proven guilty

Edit that post?

[Wcross]

25. Ok, he should refrain from becoming a suspect in a murder/arson.

I am assuming there is enough evidence for the police to charge him & that he has had a bail hearing and all that.

[Dogtown]

27. works for me

THAT would have saved him some grief, sure enough.

:hi:

[RedCappedBandit]

28. refrain from being a suspect?

:eyes:

[Wcross]

45. Are you saying he is being held with NO evidence?

Eight months and no grand jury indictment? Please link me to this news source, I couldn't find much out about the evidence against him. I figured that after eight months in jail he would have at least been indicted.

[RedCappedBandit]

59. I just thought the concept that one could...

...refrain from being a suspect was a bit silly.

[frickaline]

12. 3000 calories a day and he feels starved? what was his diet before? o.O

on the plus side, if he loses more weight, his "small pod" will feel bigger ...

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. Poor baby can't get by on 3000 a day.

Bullshit suit - he just wants a big $ payoff from the state. Just wait till the state's doctors tell the court that he is healthier than he was when first incarcerated.

[B Calm]

14. My god, he should be happy that he's losing all that fat!

[Fox Mulder]

17. He should be happy he's losing weight.

[YOY]

18. Wow..."the biggest loser" in so many ways

I usually feel sorry for inmates...usually for being sent to prison with poor legal counsel...this guy is actually healthier for his prison stay...and sues.

[Dogmudgeon]

24. ... and the Fatty Haters arrive in force!

Obesity is always a moral failing. Only the application of ridicule will restore them to virtue.

And anyone who has been charged with a crime is obviously guilty. Ed Meese said so.

--p!

[unpossibles]

54. look, I am far from being a "fatty hater" but I call BS on this

I agree that prison doctors and nutritionists should look into it, but 100 lbs in 8 months is 12 pounds a month, which is less than half a pound a day. While slightly fast, that is not an unheard of amount.

Obesity is not this man's moral failing, committing a crime is. 400 pounds is quite obese for almost any height, and while I don't condone making fun of his weight, I also do not condone the state making sure to keep up his unhealthy eating habits any more than I would want the state to keep giving drugs to someone with a drug problem. And no, I am not saying that obesity and addiction are the same thing.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. There's people who would pay thousands of dollars

for what this guy's getting for free.

[Fleshdancer]

30. At 413 lbs, he would need 5848 calories/day to maintain his weight

I don't know how a prison would go about meeting the daily caloric requirements of all inmates that require more than 3,000 calories/day to maintain their weight.

[CatWoman]

31. hey Gloria

how did you compute that (asking for personal reasons) :)

[Fleshdancer]

36. the American Cancer Society has a nifty little online tool:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_6_1x_Calorie_Calculator.asp

:hi:

[CatWoman]

38. thanks very much!!!

:hi:

[fishnfla]

32. His victim lost more weight more quickly too

shit sounds like they were gonna barbeque the guy

[KillCapitalism]

34. Wow...most people strive to be thin/average.

It sounds like this guy loves being extremely obese.

I hope he loses his frivolous suit. He should realize that when you commit a crime such as murder that you lose your freedom to eat as much as you want whenever you want.

[Lyric]

37. I see a lot of comments about how "he should be happy",

that other people pay "thousands" in order to lose that much weight, and assorted comments about how he should have stayed away from crime. But please, consider a few very relevant points before climbing up on the high horse and making a judgment:

1. He's not a convict, he's merely "charged" and is incarcerated while awaiting trial. As such, under our laws he is still innocent, which means that the snide remarks about how he should have stayed away from crime if he can't handle prison are both factually and ethically wrong. I've seen too many people released after spending years in jail for something they didn't do to sit here and make pompous assumptions about someone else's innocence or guilt, and whether they "deserve" this or not.

2. Yes, some people pay thousands to lose weight and would be enormously pleased to lose so much so quickly. However, those people *chose* to do so, and could have stopped anytime if they decided that the discomfort involved was too much to bear. This man did not choose this, and has absolutely no way to ameliorate the suffering he must be enduring. Suffering is always easier to bear when it's something that you've chosen to do, and far worse when you're being forced to undergo it against your will. Someone who's THAT overweight needs a lot more calories on a day-to-day basis just to maintain what the body uses to fuel itself than someone who is at a relatively normal weight. Being deprived of those calories (regardless of the reason) will indeed cause hunger pangs and suffering, just like it would for someone who is purposefully dieting. The difference is that dieters have the psychological balm of knowing that if it gets unbearable, they can ease off the diet for a while. This man does not have that option.

3. It is a clinical fact that losing weight too rapidly (especially without muscle-building exercise involved) can result in health risks and problems, including:

--Low body temperature/shivering: The metabolism of an obese person functions differently than the metabolism of someone at a normal weight. Their system does not have to produce as much heat, because fat insulates. When fat tissue is lost rapidly, the metabolism can't "keep up" right away, and this results in lowered body temperature and shivering until the metabolism adjusts. This adjustment takes a LOT longer if there is little to no opportunity to build up heat-producing muscle mass during the weight loss process. The interim is quite uncomfortable, and dramatically more so when you consider that most prisons are stainless-steel and concrete with one thin blanket per inmate and thin "jumpsuit"-type clothing.

--Gallstones and gallbladder problems: It's well-known and documented that rapid weight loss nearly always leads to gallstones. I had this problem myself, when I lost 80+ pounds in a year. Gallstones are extremely painful in their own right, but can also lead to serious complications like a gallbladder that doesn't function, gets infected, etc. This is precisely what happened to me, and I spent three entire months in the hospital off and on due to stone-filled gallbladder that got seriously infected and inflamed all of the other organs around it. I was on the IV antibiotic Imipenem (one of the "gorilla-cillins" like Vancomycin) because the stone-induced infection was so severe. Also, gallbladder removal surgery (cholecystectomy) is significantly more complex and difficult with seriously overweight patients, often requiring an "open" surgery that is FAR more painful, dangerous, and difficult to heal than the laparoscopic version.

--Loose, hanging body skin: When weight is lost too fast, the body can't contract the skin fast enough to keep up, and people are often left with hanging body skin; particularly under the arms and in the "apron" area of the lower abdomen. The extra and deep "skin folds" that this creates increase the chance for skin infections, yeast infections, serious skin rash and irritation, and general pain and discomfort. Dramatically hanging skin usually requires surgery to remove, thus exposing the patient to the inherent risks that go along with all surgeries--infection, anesthetic reactions, surgical mistakes, etc.

There are times that rapid weight loss is safe and healthy, so long as it is closely supervised by a physician and the benefits outweigh the risks (like for someone who's severely diabetic, or who has serious heart disease), but enforced rapid weight loss in an institutional prison setting, against the inmate's will, without close physician supervision? That is inhumane, painful, and seriously detrimental to the inmate's health.

I understand that our society disapproves of obesity, and that obesity is unhealthy. But it is no healthier to lose weight too quickly, especially when the weight loss is forced and undergone without the benefit of intense medical supervision and care. In order to treat this man humanely, the prison must, at the VERY LEAST, provide enough nutritious food for the weight loss to occur slowly and safely, with lots of exercise options for building up muscle mass to take the place of the fat tissue, and a physician to closely monitor the health of the man's gallbladder, blood cholesterol levels, and skin tissue.

[Horse with no Name]

41. Thanks for this.

I wasn't going to spend alot of time going into the details...but you did and it is very informative.
Sometimes I wonder if I am actually logging on to a progressive site these days.

[Lyric]

47. You and I both.

I think it has a lot to do with the years under Bush the Compassionless, but that's just my personal guess. People seem to have forgotten that issues are more complex than the typical conservative "black and white" mindset.

[RedCappedBandit]

60. Good post

Rather ironic that the people ridiculing the man for being obese are clueless as to how to appropriately lose weight.

[Elspeth]

39. Why do I think that Jenny Craig is going to find a way to make money out of this?

Put the dieter in jail at Halloween; fit into that swimsuit come summer!

[hyphenate]

46. Ok, so flamesuit on

So here it is:

He should have thought of that before he--allegedly--beat a man to death. Another deterrent, I would say, to the wicked.

[CBGLuthier]

50. One little point for those who find this funny

he hasn't even had his day in court yet.

Imagine sitting in a fucking cell, convicted of nothing and being treated like shit.

But go ahead and laugh you skinny fucks.

[cloudbase]

52. He must be in my union.

We've got the bitchingest and complainingest bunch you could imagine.




Hey!! I made up a couple of new words! Maybe I could be your prezdent.

[El Pinko]

53. This man should be thanking the jailers.

He is an amazing idiot. He's not being starved. He's being fed a normal diet to maintain a 200-lb body. Why on earth should the jail give him double the calories so he can maintain all that fat?

Eventually, he'll stop losing and reach equilibrium. I hope when he gets out, he doesn't return to overeating.

By the way, 3000 calories is a LOT. People in most countries live on about 2000 calories, and in many Asian countries, it's closer to 1500-1800. And it's not because they can't afford more, it's because that is adequate to live on.

Most Americans eat way too much.

[ileus]

55. Families should supply the food for inmates.

I shouldn't be footing the bill to feed these goons. I choose to obey the law and would like to feed my own family as well at these pukes are fed.

[raccoon]

61. Betcha he'll lose the suit. nt