Posted on 04/27/2008 4:38:21 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
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.
How many calories are necessary just to sit in a cell most of the day, really?
Someone at the Sheriff’s might be happy to switch places.
Charming.
WHOOPS!!!!!!!!
I meant to say a number of PEOPLE pay big money for that kind of weight loss.
Maybe this can be turned into a weight-loss program.
I've heard a lot of that goes on there.
That may be the only diet I've never tried.
I think it was former sherrif ANDY LEE who started the cold meals at Bentonville jail.
Many want him as sherrif again.
It sucks to be in jail. He should have been a political prisoner in the Soviet Gulag system in the 1930s. 800 calories a day plus forced logging in subzero temperatures. Guaranteed to take the fat off!
Is that a male or a female?
Either way, it appears to be a freak.
Is that a picture of the food before he ate it or after?
Don’t know. Looks like a 1/2 roll meal either way.
ROFLMAO !!
;-)
He's got blood sugar issues. It's not lack of food.
I wouldn’t think a jail is obligated to provide enough food to help a 400 # man maintain his weight.
Constitutional right to remain a fat hog ping!
Funny you say that.
Some years ago here in Washington state, there was a convicted muderer named Mitchell Rupe who was sentenced to die by hanging. He fatted himself up on overeating and lots of candy bars, and had his attorney get him off death row because he claimed that the decapitation that might occur when somebody as heavy as he was reached the end of his rope. The appeals court ruled that it would be cruel and unusual punishment for a man who emptied a pistol into the faces of two female bank tellers.
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