Hundreds of meals refused at Ohio youth facilities

COLUMBUS (AP) — The state says youth at Ohio juvenile detention facilities were denied more than 2,200 meals in the past six months after the inmates refused to eat.

The Department of Youth Services released the data today at the request of a federal judge who has ordered the agency to rewrite its policy to reflect that all youth in custody must be fed.

U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley ruled last month that the agency’s meal policy didn’t put a priority on youths’ health and safety.

The most missed meals came at Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility in northeast Ohio, where youth refused 1,622 meals, mostly breakfast, from September through February.

Thirty-eight Indian River inmates refused meals twice in a row during that time.