Disturbing jail footage shows the rapid decline of a man who was left naked in a cell for 20 days before he apparently starved to death.
Joshua McLemore, 29, died on 10 August 2021 after spending three weeks at the Jackson County Jail in Seymour, Indiana. McLemore, who had a history of schizophrenia, was kept in a windowless isolation cell — which was permanently illuminated by fluorescent lights — while he was in a constant state of psychosis, according to a lawsuit filed by his family.
Surveillance footage shows a distraught McLemore staring into space, licking the walls, chewing styrofoam, speaking gibberish and rolling around in the trash. The cell, which was monitored in real-time by jail staff, was filthy with spilt food, faeces and urine that McLemore smeared on the walls during his mental health crisis.
Jail staff only made the call to transport him to a medical facility after an extremely emaciated and dehydrated McLemore was so weak he couldn’t stand on his own. By then, his condition was so dire that he had to be airlifted to a hospital in Cincinnati, where he died two days later as a result of multiple organ failure stemming from his refusal to eat or drink “with altered mental status due to untreated schizophrenia.”
His family is now suing jail staff for their alleged negligence and failure to prevent McLemore’s death. As part of the lawsuit, they’ve submitted more than 400 hours of video that they say show the “inhumane conditions” of McLemore’s confinement during his active psychosis.
“Josh McLemore wasn’t a criminal. He was mentally ill and in crisis. He was out of touch with reality and needed help. This is glaringly obvious to anyone who watches the videos of him in his isolation cell,” Hank Balson, an attorney for McLemore’s family, told The Independent on Thursday.
“But instead of getting Josh the care he so desperately needed, the Jackson County Sheriff and his staff left Josh alone in his cell, naked, barely sleeping or eating, for almost three weeks as he wasted away in front of their eyes,” Mr Balson added. “This is not only unconstitutional, it’s immoral.”
McLemore had a history of mental health illness and substance abuse since he was a teenager. He was taken to a hospital in the summer of 2021 after his mother became concerned because he was not answering her calls.
At his mother’s request, McLemore’s landlord checked on his apartment and found him disoriented and lying on the floor. He was then transported to the Schneck Medical Center, where doctors recognised his symptoms were consistent with an acute mental health crisis and drug use.
Although McLemore was described as “somewhat cooperative” while being transported in the ambulance, EMTs noted that he did not respond well when touched.
At the hospital, McLemore pulled a nurse’s hair after she touched him on the shoulder. A hospital security guard, who was also an off-duty Jackson County Sheriff’s detective, first told Josh to get back into bed and not to touch the nurses.
According to the lawsuit, McLemore complied but the guard then reached out to the Seymour Police Department.
Four officers responded to the hospital and arrested McLemore, placing him in handcuffs and leg shackles while he was only wearing his underwear. He was taken to the Jackson County Jail, which is 10 miles away from the hospital. Jail staff then skipped standard book-in procedures, the lawsuit alleges.
No photographs or fingerprints were taken, and no intake medical or mental health screening were conducted.
“And even though staff were aware that Josh had been brought to the jail directly from the hospital, they did not contact any medical professional to evaluate him, discover why he was in the hospital, or determine whether he could safely be detained at the jail, given his mental state and the jail’s limited medical and mental health resources,” the lawsuit states.
Instead, he was kept in a small cell for the remainder of his confinement. Because of his mental health state, McLemore smeared his faeces on the walls, spilt food on the floor and tore up the storyfoam boxes and paper bags that came with his meals.
McLemore defecated and urinated on the floor his cell had a bathroom attached but it was kept locked nearly the entire time he was confined, according to the lawsuit.
McLemore weighed 198 pounds when he arrived at the jail but because of his psychosis, he ate and drank very little - to the point that he lost almost 45 pounds in 20 days.
“Jail staff were aware of this from personal observations and from being able to monitor all of Josh’s activities through a continuous real-time video feed,” the lawsuit states. “... But they did nothing to intervene or secure needed medical or mental health care until it was too late.”
The only times McLemore interacted with guards was when they forcibly put him into restraint devices so they could shower him and clean his cell. The last time that McLemore was showered, he was so weak that he couldn’t keep his head and arms in place.
Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer, commander Chris Everhart, licensed practical nurse Milton Edward Rutan — the only medical professional employed at the jail — and Advanced Correctional Healthcare are named in the lawsuit.
“Josh’s death wasn’t the result of a simple error in judgment. Every officer who worked in that jail over the three weeks Josh was there could plainly see that he was not in his right mind and was not able to care for himself. But not a single one knew what to do,” Mr Balson said.
“The jail had no mental health staff, and the single LPN who worked there three or four days a week, whose job it was to make sure seriously ill people in the County’s custody got the care they needed, barely interacted with Josh and ignored the obvious risks of his condition.”
McLemore’s family is suing for compensatory damages and legal fees, and punitive damages against the defendants named in the lawsuit.
Last year, prosecutors in Jackson County said that no charges would be filed against staff at the jail because none of their actions constituted a crime, but noted that McLemore died as a result of prolonged lack of attention by staff “as a group,” according to WHAS11.
The Independent has reached out to the Jackson County Jail for comment.
