For the past few months, Emmanuel Porter-Taylor and other young men housed at Colorado’s Youthful Offender System detention facility in Pueblo have complained to their parents about being hungry.

Meal portions seem to be getting smaller and smaller. The canteen, where incarcerated teens and young adults can buy snacks and other food items, is only reserved for those who have achieved higher privilege levels based on good behavior.

Porter-Taylor lost 20 to 30 pounds in recent weeks, his mother told The Denver Post. His eyes began to yellow. He couldn’t keep water down. Staff gave him Tylenol and told him to sleep, his mother, Ivory Taylor, said in an interview.

“Mom,” his mother said he told her last week, “I think they’re trying to kill me.”

The 22-year-old ended up in the hospital,

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