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solitary confinement
A disturbing new lawsuit alleges extended solitary confinement and willful neglect killed a mentally ill county jail inmate after nearly 3 weeks locked naked in a padded cell. Attorneys for Joshua McLemore’s family argue his untreated schizophrenia psychosis kept him from eating or drinking despite guards delivering food, ultimately causing fatal organ failure.
According to court filings, police brought the 29-year-old McLemore to emergency services after finding him dazed in his apartment mid-psychotic break in summer 2021. But he soon faced arrest for erratic behavior like pulling a nurse’s hair, then transfer to Jackson County Jail on charges of battery against staff.
There McLemore’s lawsuit says he landed for weeks stretched end-to-end in a barren isolation cell. Surveillance video shows the space stained with smears of feces and food waste as guards seldom unlocked the adjoining bathroom per cell protocols. The complaint alleges McLemore dropped over 40 pounds as psychosis kept him from adequately eating provisions shoved through a slot.
Attorney Hank Balson denounced such confinement of the untried inmate as “glaringly obvious” indifference towards serious illness. He contends McLemore’s downhill spiral stemmed directly from Jackson County’s deficient policies and staff training on handling major mental breaks.
But while corrections health contractor Advanced Correctional Healthcare proclaimed confidence in its crisis response procedures, a jailhouse doctor still greenlit extended solitary for the visibly unwell detainee. Guards meanwhile recounted entreating McLemore to eating when extracting him shackled for occasional showers.
After losing nearly 50 pounds, jailers finally sent McLemore to hospital care too late - transferred facilities could not stabilize organ failure and resultant cardiac arrest. He perished caked in his own filth just five days after leaving isolation purgatory, Balson said.
The disturbing account of willful negligence has put Jackson County authorities on defense. Local prosecutors previously found no criminal conduct by jail staff after investigating McLemore’s demise. But the current civil action alleges willful violations of McLemore’s rights to due medical care while detained.
Whatever its ultimate merits, the suit fuels outrage surrounding dehumanizing impacts of solitary confinement. Critics condemn putting vulnerable inmates like McLemore in “the hole” for compounding mental breaks, especially when conviction or longer-term sentence remain uncertain.
Statistics show nearly half of all US prisoner suicides occur in isolated cells like McLemore occupied. The UN defines any confinement exceeding 15 straight days as torture. Yet the mentally ill still land isolated for want of resources and awareness.
McLemore’s case exemplifies the extremes correctional facilities' overreliance on segregated housing units enables. Without closer supervision, such coercive environments erode human dignity and innate will to persevere. More must be done to balance safety with trained care for those jails increasingly double as mental health wards. But for now, another agonizing instance becomes a courtroom affair.
