NAACP looks into Lee County Jail medical ward after inmate’s death

The NAACP has toured the Lee County Jail following complaints from the father of an inmate who died in its medical ward.

Paul Carbone said his son, 30-year-old Michael, died from a bacterial infection that went to his heart at the jail’s medical ward. He was in jail for six days before he died on a failure to appear in court charge for prior drug charges.

Carbone said his son should have been taken to the hospital for treatment.

The NAACP toured the facility and said they found nothing out of the ordinary, including nothing that points to wrong-doing at the Lee County Jail.

Carbone, though, said he is not convinced.

He wants to know if doctors did all they could to keep his son alive. That question keeps him up at night.

“My concern with that was he was in there six days,” Carbone said. “Why wasn’t he taken to the hospital?”

“They could have started him on IV antibiotics at the hospital and possibly saved his life,” Carbone added.

Lee County NAACP President James Muwakkil decided to get involved after watching the story on WINK News about Michael’s death.

Muwakkil asked Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno for a tour of the jail’s medical ward.

“The NAACP regardless of race, color, or creed we want to know is everything as it should be and did anybody do anything that might be conceived to be criminal,” Muwakkil said.

Muwakkil told Carbone he didn’t see anything wrong.

He said the inmates he spoke with were satisfied with their care.

As for what happened to Michael?

“He was under observation from the nurse but because he died in his sleep there was not a whole lot of reaction to alert them,” Muwakkil said.

His dad is not convinced.

He wants to see the moments leading up to his death.

“I would like the sheriff’s department to release the videos of him incarcerated in the medical ward for the six days that he was in there to get the answers because the tapes will tell more of an answer than a tour or somebody showing up at a jail when they are expected to be showing up,” Carbone said.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating Michael’s death and will release some information next week.

WINK News requested the sheriff’s office’s policy on transporting sick patients to the hospital but they haven’t provided the policy.