Allen Co. inmate to have leg amputated; wife claims he wasn’t receiving proper medical care

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - The wife of an Allen County Jail inmate is pleading for change there after she claims her husband faces life-changing surgery because of failures in health care.

Michele Willams says her husband, Jamone Williams, has been in the hospital for more than 40 days.

“My husband turned himself in walking on two legs and two eyes that could see and he’s going to leave the Allen County Jail with one leg,” Williams said.

A number of lawsuits have been filed against the Allen County Jail. Those suits are similar to one that ended in a federal ruling that gives the Sheriff and county commissioners until the middle of next month to fix a number of issues relating to overcrowding.

“It’s horrific,” Williams said. “I called for help on his behalf. I get told that ‘We can’t do anything, we can’t talk with you,’ and then he’ll sit and wait and then something horrible will happen. They want to act reactive instead of proactive on things that are totally preventable.”

Jamone is waiting to be sentenced. Michele Williams says they’ve been married for eight years and that her husband has diabetes that hasn’t been treated properly.

“He’s a ‘type 1 diabetic’ that had open sores on his feet starting in December that was treated with cream instead of having them cleaned with antibiotics and wrapped,” Williams said. “That happened for two and a half months and then in February he was given insulin that’s not for a ‘type 1 diabetic.’”

She says after several days, Jamone’s condition got even worse. Michelle says as a result, he’s been set to have one of his legs amputated. She believes change needs to come now.

“The medical team is an outside vendor to the jail because cops don’t do ‘medical’ and the ‘medical’ don’t do policing and the ‘medical’ sees them as inmates when in all reality, they’re patients,” Williams said.

Indiana Tech’s Director of Criminal Justice and Pre-law Dominic Lombardo says this is this is not just a problem in Allen County.

“It’s very common unfortunately throughout the whole country and it’s really been made worse because of the coronavirus,” Lombardo said.

Lombardo points to a nationwide shortage of resources and says this trend has become more common in recent years.

“We have a lot of jail population with people who should be treated for mental illness or physical illness and instead of putting them in the proper facilities because of a lack of funding, they’re putting them in the jail facilities,” Lombardo said.

Meanwhile, Williams hopes the recent legal ruling means nobody else has to go through what her husband has experienced.

“I want people to be accountable,” Williams said. “I want there to be change. I don’t think this should happen to anybody. This has been horrible. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I love my husband dearly.”

Williams says no matter what lands someone in the jail, she wants those inmates to have their basic needs -- medical and otherwise -- met.

We reached out for comment from the Allen County Sheriff’s Department, but have not yet heard back.

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