Eating disorder and incarceration?
ARFID (or avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) is a type of selective eating disorder listed in the DSM V associated with but not necessarily comorbid with autism where people are unable to eat certain types of foods because of sensitivity to taste or texture. This would a sort of an extreme form of picky eating.
First off, I want to preface this by saying that I’ve never been to jail nor hopefully ever have to experience being incarcerated, nor do I hope any of you do.
I wonder what would be the legal protections or lack thereof one would have if they have an eating disorder and literally have no choices on food because they are an inmate? What would happen and what recourse would you have to either request special food because jail food isn’t palatable and in a more extreme case, you physically cannot or choice not to eat any of the food because of you’re unusual eating disorder?
At some point, you would most likely have to be hospitalized due to the weight loss and either your safe foods or something like a feeding tube. It’s strange because it seems like not offering someone their safe foods could create more costly problems than restricting food options.
Obviously, this will vary greatly by jurisdiction and maybe even in terms of pre-conviction and post-conviction. I am thinking in terms of the United States, but curious about anywhere in the world.