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Today, Disability Rights Pennsylvania filed suit<\/a> against the state\u2019s prison system, alleging that the agency provides dangerously inadequate medical care for people with Type 1 diabetes and punishes them for their disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis action seeks to stop the cruel and unusual punishment of, and discrimination against, prisoners in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes,\u201d the complaint says.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked for comment, the DOC told The Appeal in an email that they don\u2019t comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n Steve and Barbara O\u2019Connor\u2019s daughter, Ellen, is among the approximately 190 people with Type 1 diabetes incarcerated in Pennsylvania state prisons, according to the complaint. Prior to her incarceration, her condition was well-managed, they said. But since she\u2019s been locked up, she\u2019s been \u201cnear comatose\u201d multiple times with extreme blood sugar lows.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Ellen is not her real name. At the family\u2019s request, The Appeal is using an alias to protect her privacy.)<\/p>\n Disability Rights Pennsylvania (DRP) says Ellen\u2019s experience is emblematic of a system-wide crisis. People with Type 1 diabetes are \u201cdenied basic medical care,\u201d putting them at \u201cimmediate risks of loss of consciousness, seizures, coma, and sudden death,\u201d according to the group\u2019s complaint. The group alleges that, as a result of DOC\u2019s policies and practices, life-threatening low and high blood sugars are a pervasive problem among prisoners with Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n \u201cI want these people to get life-sustaining care,\u201d Barbara said. \u201cThey walk in as one, and they can walk out without limbs, heart disease, blind, a multitude of life-changing illnesses due to the lack of care.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellen fears she won\u2019t survive her incarceration.<\/p>\n \u201cShe keeps saying she\u2019s afraid she\u2019s going to die in there, she\u2019s never going to get out,\u201d Barbara said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Appeal in Your Inbox<\/p>\n Subscribe to our newsletters for regular updates, analysis and context straight to your email.<\/p>\n Even though Type 1 diabetes is classified as a disability<\/a> under the Americans with Disabilities Act, many incarcerated people are deprived of the care they need, with catastrophic consequences. Earlier this month, a Philadelphia jury ordered the city to pay $1.5 million<\/a> to the family of a man with Type 1 diabetes who died after he was deprived of insulin<\/a> and developed diabetic ketoacidosis, also known as DKA, while detained in a city jail. Diabetic ketoacidosis is a life-threatening condition that requires immediate hospitalization.\u00a0<\/p>\n Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong, chronic illness in which a person\u2019s pancreas ceases to make insulin. People with Type 1 diabetes must receive insulin through daily injections or an insulin pump.\u00a0<\/p>\n The condition requires around-the-clock vigilance. People with Type 1 must monitor their blood sugar, either through finger sticks or with a medical device called a continuous glucose monitor; calculate the number of carbohydrates they plan to eat to determine their insulin dose; and administer insulin multiple times a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Pennsylvania prisoners are unable to follow any of these practices, according to the complaint. DRP alleges that people with Type 1 diabetes are routinely not given insulin to cover the carbohydrates they eat; are not told the carbohydrate counts for their meals; and are given antiquated forms of insulin. In some prisons, their blood sugar is checked only twice a day, according to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n DRP says that prison officials have banned insulin pumps and denied all but one request for a continuous glucose monitor, even though both devices can help stabilize blood sugar levels. People with Type 1 diabetes use both devices in the community, and many other correctional facilities allow them, including some Pennsylvania county jails, according to the complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n