Joshua McLemore

Joshua McLemore was a 29-year-old resident of Seymour, Indiana. Born in Gulfport, Mississippi, he attended Missississippi State University and enjoyed playing chess and watching sports. He had a history of schizophrenia and substance abuse. On July 20, 2021, McLemore seemed disoriented and erratic and was taken to the hospital. While there, he pulled a nurse’s hair and a hospital security guard contacted the local police department. Four officers arrived and arrested him, “placed him in handcuffs and leg shackles, and carried him out of the hospital, naked except for his underwear.” McLemore was booked into the Jackson County Jail without an intake procedure or a medical evaluation, according to the lawsuit. He was placed directly in “a small, windowless, padded isolation cell, where he remained confined, naked, alone and in a constant state of psychosis for the next 20 days.” According to the lawsuit, McLemore slept for a total of roughly 15 hours over the course of about three weeks. He had no access to a sink or toilet and due to his “active psychosis” could not communicate to guards to request the bathroom. According to the lawsuit, the jail had no mental health professional and guards were “not trained to or equipped to engage with a severely mentally ill person in a safe and humane manner.” At one point, McLemore was kept in a restraint device with his legs bound for more than four and a half hours. He consumed little food or water and by August 8, was so weak that he could not stand. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with hypoxia, or insufficient oxygen in his body tissues, encephalopathy, a disease affecting brain function, acute renal failure, hypernatremia, an indication of severe dehydration, a disease affecting brain function, and rhabdomyolysis, or a breakdown of damaged muscle tissue. He died on August 10. According to the lawsuit, jail staff monitored McLemore during his incarceration through a continuous real-time video feed. “They watched as he lost almost 45 pounds in less than three weeks. But they did nothing to intervene or secure needed medical or mental heath care until it was too late,” the lawsuit alleged.

McLemore's family secured a $7.25 million settlement, possibly the largest in state history in connection to the death of an incarcerated person. Wrongful death lawsuits against the jail’s physician and its medical services provider, Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc, are still pending. Court records here. Prosecutors announced that no one at the jail would be prosecuted.

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