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US lag sues over prison crash diet

'We're starved to death', moans 140kg murder suspect

A US prisoner awaiting trial on a murder rap* has filed suit against the county after losing more than 45kg in eight months on an Arkansas prison "starvation" diet, AP reports.

Broderick Lloyd Laswell now tips the scales at 140kg, having weighed 187kg when he was incarcerated in Benton County jail last September. His suit, filed in US District Court in Fayetteville, claims the facility "doesn't provide inmates with enough food".

Laswell explains: "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. About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again."

The suit then somewhat confusingly adds: "If we are in a small pod all day [and] do next to nothing for physical exercise, we should not lose weight. The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death."

Jail Captain Hunter Petray claimed that the meals, provided by Aramark Correctional Institution Services, "average 3,000 calories a day" - higher than a "typical Western diet" at 2,000-3,000 calories.

As well as bemoaning the prison grub's lack of calories, Laswell's suit also demands lags be served some hot nosh. Benton County jail has "for years" tortured its inmates with exclusively cold food, AP notes. ®

Bootnote

*According to police, Laswell and a co-defendant "fatally beat and stabbed a man, then set his home on fire".

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