A man sent to prison from Oktibbeha County has filed a federal lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections, alleging that it is deliberately ignoring his worsening medical conditions.
James A. Lambert, 37, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2019 for extortion. He was accused of sending threatening text messages to a couple, which were received by the male victim. According to court documents, Lambert threatened to “falsely expose” the male victim for pedophilia and “have the victim arrested for sex-related crimes.”
The indictment states Lambert demanded a vehicle and money while making the threats.
Lambert, who is representing himself in his lawsuit, alleges he has developed painful skin conditions that can only be corrected surgically and MDOC has done little to facilitate treatment.
In his complaint, which was filed Feb. 8 in the Northern District of Mississippi and represents only one side of a legal argument, Lambert wrote that he suffers from hidradenitis, a condition that causes abscesses and scarring on the skin.
The sores caused by hidradenitis have “to be surgically removed by a surgeon specialist in order to have the infection properly and entirely removed,” Lambert wrote.
Lambert’s odyssey started with a wound under his left armpit. At the time he was incarcerated in South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, and after petitioning the court for relief he was taken to Jackson for surgery in August 2022.
However, in January 2023 his condition recurred and he developed an infected spot on his right buttock. Lambert went to the infirmary and was prescribed antibiotics, which he said were ineffective. He asked for an offsite doctor’s visit to receive treatment.
Lambert was returned to his housing area, and had to start stuffing his pants with gauze “so the pus and blood would not leak all over his clothes,” he wrote.
From January through June 2023 Lambert alleges he “made an unknown amount of trips to the infirmary” and was told his request to go to an off-site medical appointment was “pending” with the MDOC Records Department in Jackson.
In July 2023 Lambert was transferred from Leakesville to the Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly Springs, where he “made his medical condition well aware to staff.” Lambert alleges he was referred to a nurse practitioner, who once again put him on antibiotics.
Lambert alleges that the nurse practitioner attempted to “cut the infection out … but did not completely numb (Lambert).”
As of Jan. 6, Lambert wrote that he was approved for an off-site medical visit but no appointment had been scheduled.
Lambert is requesting copies of his medical records and logs of his visits to the infirmary since January 2023, and is also asking the court to help him “receive the proper medical treatment to properly treat and remove the (hidradenitis) that he has been inhumanely suffering with for over a year now.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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