By C1 Staff
JACKSON — The Michigan Department of Corrections says it’s ready to handle an inmate who weighed in at 625 pounds when he called in a bomb threat.
Jeffrey Klein originally had a plea deal in the works to be sentenced to home-based punishment after he claimed his weight made it impossible for him to leave the house, MLive reports. But after officers pulled him over for a broken tail light, that consideration was dropped.
Klein was housed in the Kent County Jail until he fell while using a walker, further postponing his sentencing. Eventually he was given 18 months to four years behind bars.
The DOC says they’ve handled bigger inmates, the biggest being closer to 700 pounds.
“A lot of them lost significant weight and came out healthier,” said Chris Gautz, a corrections spokesman. “We’ve had prisoners come in here heavy and they’ve left us much healthier because they are under a specialized medical and dietary plan.”
Inmates like Klein wouldn’t receive special food, but would be limited in their intake and do not have access to the quantities of food that helped them become obese in the first place. Prison dieticians work with medical staff to ensure that inmates get necessary amounts of calories to maintain their health.
Klein will likely be housed on the ground floor to avoid issues with stairs, and Gautz added that prison uniforms are made in-house by the prisoners themselves, making special sizes easy to come by.