20yr old son with Type 1 in prison

Can someone help me figure out how to help my son who is in a minimum level prison facility? They took his pump, have him on a low calorie diet and only give him 2 shot's a day. I know he isn't the only person that has dealt with this and I am concerned about his current and long term health. He is prone to high blood sugar...having a high blood sugar for him makes him very angry. This isn't a good place to be angry or you will pay for it. I am open to any dialog please.

Amy

I have consulted with (mental health) clients who are in jail, not prison, but perhaps it is similar. Often there is a doctor who is either permanently connected to the jail or works for them in a consulting capacity. It would be a good idea to try and find out who that is and meet with him. Better yet, have your son's doctor call him because often professionals respond better to communication with other professionals.

Unfortunately, the guiding principal in overcrowded prisons is "one size fits all" with very limited capacity for individual needs. One of my jobs as Case Manager was to advocate for my clients needs with the prison staff. And because we were all county employees we had a cordial relationship. Perhaps there is some kind of a similar case manager or advocate that can go and visit your son and talk with the staff?

Bottom line is he will probably have to make do with what they provide. I'm assuming the 2 shots a day are the older insulins, R or NPH which are not terribly accurate. If you can get them to change to MDI that would be great, but unlikely. So he might have to make do. Do they allow him to test? One thing a doctor could do to advocate is to recommend him to test and that staff must act if his blood sugar is out of a certain range. If there is a doctor's order in place they have to respond (though not necessarily in a timely manner!)

As for low calorie diet that is pretty meaningless unless it is lower carb which is unlikely. But again, they may only have set options.

Finally if he has "anger issues" even if they are primarily caused by high blood sugar you can request a mental health consult which may get him the case manager to advocate for him I mentioned above. I hope some of this helps. Good luck with a difficult situation.

I'm going to be upfront and say that I do no have much prior knowledge to the legalities of the US prison system involving life sustaining medications. Considering that insulin IS a life sustaining medicine, if I were personally in this situation, I would consult legal advice to see what can possibly be done. I can predict that not much will probably be done through sympathy with the actual prison system unfortunately :( My advice is to seek the advice of an experienced lawyer, that way, if there is some law stating that he MUST have insulin 3-4x a day and a certain diet, they must abide by it, regardless of his status. Even if he's still not getting the absolute BEST care, I'm sure getting an altered diet than he currently has and a few more insulin injections will definitely help. It's a really sad situation.