Man with schizophrenia died after weeks of being malnourished in solitary confinement, lawsuit says
The estate of 29-year-old Joshua McLemore is suing Jackson County, Indiana, and multiple other parties including the area's sheriff, jail commander and medical staff, alleging that McLemore died in custody from the results of dehydration and malnutrition after spending 20 days in solitary confinement in Jackson County Jail.
Also being sued in Advanced Correctional Healthcare, Inc., a Tennessee-based private contractor that provides healthcare services to Jackson County Jail and 370 other jails nationwide.
The lawsuit alleged that "multiple failures" Jackson County Jail employees and "systemic deficiencies" within the facility led to McLemore's death.
"His condition was treatable, and his death was preventable," the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, McLemore was arrested for pulling a nurse's hair while receiving care for a mental health crisis at the Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, Indiana. He was brought directly from the hospital to the jail. McLemore's estate alleges that Jackson County Jail employees did not "perform any of the customary book-in procedures" after he was brought to the facility, including conducting an intake medical or mental health screening or contacting a medical professional to evaluate him.
He was allegedly immediately placed in padded isolation cell, with no clothes. According to the lawsuit, the county's own policies described McLemore's solitary confinement as "extreme isolation." He continued to experience active psychosis, the condition he had been hospitalized for, the suit alleged. He was a pretrial detainee and had not been tried for or convicted of a crime.
A constantly operating surveillance camera in the cell provided jail staff with the "ability to monitor Josh's every movement and sound in real time over the next 20 days." There are more than 400 hours of recorded video that allegedly show McLemore's "active psychosis and deteriorating condition," the lawsuit said. Some videos were included in the lawsuit and show McLemore's behavior in his cell.
According to the lawsuit, McLemore was under "medical observation," but observation logs were only maintained for the first week of his time in the jail and regular observations were either not documented or not performed. A record of McLemore's food and fluid intake was maintained for only one day, the lawsuit said.
Because of his active psychosis, McLemore was unable to care for himself or communicate clearly, the lawsuit said. He allegedly barely slept and engaging in behaviors including smearing feces, chewing Styrofoam from food containers and rolling around in trash. A bathroom in his cell could have been unlocked upon request, the lawsuit said, but because McLemore could not communicate, he could not ask for it to be opened. The lawsuit also said that McLemore walked on and ate food contaminated by his own waste, signs that should have alarmed jail employees.
"Relatively little of the food Josh received made it into his mouth," the lawsuit said. "Instead, it ended up littering the floor of his cell along with urine, feces, and scraps of paper and Styrofoam he tore from the food containers."
The lawsuit alleged that McLemore lost almost 45 pounds during his three weeks in jail. On Aug. 8, 2021, he was brought to a local hospital, then airlifted to a larger facility in Cinncinnati where he died two days later. According to the lawsuit, his cause of death was listed as "multiple organ failure due to refusal to eat or drink with altered mental status due to untreated schizophrenia."
McLemore's death was investigated by Indiana State Police. The county's prosecuting attorney, Jeffrey Chalfant, said that McLemore "most likely died due to a prolonged lack of attention by Jackson County Jail Staff as a group." No one was charged in connection with the investigation. The lawsuit described Chalfant's explanation as "accurate" but "incomplete," stating that there was "deliberate indifference" by the parties named in the lawsuit.
McLemore's estate is demanding a jury trial and seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Jessica Young, president and chief executive of Advanced Correctional Healthcare, told local publication The Indy Star that the organization was prohibited from disclosing patient information because of privacy and confidentiality laws.
"We take criticisms of the care provided by our team seriously," she said.
CBS News has reached out to the Jackson County Jail and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, which share a phone line, for comment and is awaiting response.