My friend is in jail on a criminal mischeif charge ( he damaged someones car ) I know but he’s my friend and I miss him so therefor I want to visit him . He’s only supposed to be in there for another month he’s done 2 weeks so far . Well I called the jail to find out about visiting hours and all that type of stuff and I’m convinced that it will be impossible for me to visit and that’s cause of me being a type 1 diabetic .The lady that I spoke with told me that I’m not aloud to wear my insulin pump I’ll have to take it off and leave it in a locker along with my pocket book ( which has my glucose gel and tablets inside ) I told her that I can go low unexpectedly and if I need some candy I don’t want to make a big deal out of it , ya know where everyone has to know that I’m weird cause I’ll pass out within a couple of minutes if I don’t get some and then it becomes a whole big production and I always try to avoid that . So therefore I can’t visit my friend because I’m not going to take off my pump and have to purposely run my blood sugar high because of the fact that if I go low within that hour visit I’ll have to walk all the way to the locker areas just to get to my candy so tedious .
Well I certainly think it depends how badly you want to make the visit, but it certainly can be done if you want to. I’m a little curious about why your blood sugar is so unstable that you feel seriously at risk for a low after an hour. I see your A1C is quite high. I’m wondering if you’ve done basal testing recently? If your basals are set correctly you should stay stable throughout the day. Also once the basals are set right, with perhaps different amounts for different times as needed, everything else will work better as well you will be able to more accurately set your I:C ratios.
I know it feels uncomfortable to set aside your pump and glucose tablets, but for that short period of time you should be fine. That’s one of the advantages of the pump - allowing us that kind of flexibility. But if it isn’t set to meet your needs it can’t help. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to tweak your settings so that you get more out of your pump.
I agree with Zoe. You should do some basal testing to make sure you have your basals set right. If you need to take your pump, then you would add up your basal rates and give that as bolus. For instance, if your basal rate is 0.5 units per hour up until 3 PM and then change to 1.0 after three and you planned on being there from 2-4, you would give yourself 1.5 units (.05 for 2-3 and 1 unit for 3-4). People often have to take their pumps off for medical procedures.
With a pump, you know exactly how much IOB you have left. Try to eat early enough before going so you don’t have any IOB. With your basal set correctly and no IOB, you shouldn’t have to worry about going low.
Jail is a whole other issue with allowing “contraband” into a facility where it may be taken and made into objects that can hurt someone else. I can understand their perspective on this one. For instance, a glucose gel container, if gotten into the wrong hands can be melted down iand made into a weapn theoretically. I agree with Kelly - try to make up for missed basal by a bolus before you are made to take the pump off and make sure your BG is OK prior to being away from your glucose source. If you feel yourself going low, then you will have to walk back to the locker area.
How long are jail house visits? If it is for 30 minutes, just take the pump off you will not notice much of a difference.
I shudder to even think what happens with insulin dependent diabetics when they’re incarcerated. Judging me the stories I’ve heard of people being hospitalized - where they are put on NPH and Regular and fed tons of carbs, it sure can’t be good. I’ve thought about if I ever have to be hospitalized having my doctor write an order for me to continue to manage my own diabetes. I don’t imagine a lawyer can do that for their client!
They should have a scared straight for diabetics and show what the average A1c of someone in prison is!
Yeah, it would be interesting to know but then I’d get really pissed off at the criminal justice system! I used to sometimes visit mental health clients who were incarcerated and in our small community we were very lucky to have a good RN and doctor who worked at the jail and were willing to consult with us for prisoners with mental health issues. I don’t know that it’s like that everywhere.
I think just having diabetes, certainly type 1 is it’s own scared straight! I had another experience of knowing just how dependent I am on Tuesday when I ran out of infusion sets and was 334 by the afternoon. (and that was with shots!)
I would probably be mad too! I would think they would put anyone on insulin in a special unit - I can’t imagine how they would deal with someone having bad lows in a regular cell. You are lucky to have a good doctor & RN that will work with you. I doubt that is the case everywhere though.
I saw the post that you said that. If you were in jail, they wouldn’t let you have the pump!
You would think so (the special unit) but I wouldn’t count on it. The jail in the county I worked for did put psychotic prisoners separately, and prisoners with communicable diseases but with prison overcrowding not many jails or prisons have that luxury, or they wait until a crisis occurs, then isolate the person. My experience of prison personnel is they are not overly concerned with the well-being of the prisoners but only the risk of something giving them a greater problem (or liability). The county I worked for was very small and so there were day to day relationships between various county personnel such as jail and Behavioral Health. But even then we liaisonned with the medical personnel who were more sympathetic and they advocated with the jail personnel (sometime successfully, sometime not).
I have been in jail (but not prison) many many years ago, and don’t have any plans to return in this lifetime…lol. Yep, I think those of us who live in the 21st century and have adequate insurance or national healthcare and are able to use state of the art treatments for our diabetes are so so fortunate.
I would think that the main thing people would be smuggling into jail would be drugs rather than weapons?
I spent some time in a mental hospital several years back. Technically not a prison but hah you wouldn’t know it everyone there was treated like an inmate! They were TERRIBLE about diabetes there, oh gosh. Because I wasn’t allowed any sharps, a nurse had to come in and give me all my shots and blood tests, but yeah like she had any idea what she was doing. I think I was on Lantus by then with the pen for Novolog…well one night right before bed when I was gonna get my Lantus shot I noticed her drawing up a HUUGE syringe (like 20 units!) of Novolog.
I was like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” And she goes “this is what we do for all the diabetics” I told her then they all must be dead! I wouldn’t let that woman get near me. Luckily they decided that it might be a better idea to call my doctor and check before sending me to bed with 20 units of fast acting insulin in me 
But ugh! Institutions and diabetes do not mix.
So she puts liquid cocaine in her pump!
If you took out the battery, you could stick all enough goodies in there to “have a pretty good weekend in Vegas”, as Major Kong put it!
Yes - drugs are a big one. But the inmates can potentially make a weapon out of anything they get their hands onto and hurt another inmate, or a guard. You would be surprised at the creativity of weapon making in prision. They have lots of time on their hands to conjure up a plan.
I was going to ask AR if he ever watched that show that is like Cops except it is prison. Like you said, they have a lot of time to come up with a plan.
Ask them how they carry in a person with a wheel chair or guide a blind person with a cane. I the eyes of the court, there is no difference. The pump is a medical necessity and not any different than a colostomy bag, a wheel chair or a cane.
It may take a little more effort to make them aware of the law regarding providing equal access to all and that Type 1 diabetes is a disability under federal law requiring that the must provide equal access in their facility.
I was thinking supply and demand though, there are weapons all over the place so demand for weapons would be low. While drugs are not unheard of either, I suspect they’d be more valuable. Since people with diabetes already know their way around syringes, we’d probably get extra scrutiny from prison guards?