‘CONFINED, NAKED, ALONE’

Indiana Man With Untreated Schizophrenia Dies After Weeks in Solitary Confinement, Lawsuit Says

Joshua McLemore died in summer 2021 “confined, naked, alone, and in a constant state of psychosis,” the lawsuit alleges.

Joshua McLemore—an incarcerated Indiana man with a history of schizophrenia—died of organ failure after nearly three weeks in solitary confinement, “confined, naked, alone, and in a constant state of psychosis,” according to a new lawsuit reported by CNN. Following his death in the summer of 2021, a coroner wrote that McLemore’s cause of death was “multiple organ failure due to refusal to eat or drink with altered mental status due to untreated schizophrenia,” CNN reports. The lawsuit alleges that McLemore died due to “multiple acts of indifference, as well as systemic and unconstitutional deficiencies.” McLemore’s estate brought the suit against Jackson County, Indiana, Sheriff Rick Meyer, as well as multiple doctors, jail employees and entities that oversaw health-care services at the facility McLemore was in.