A protest calling for the release of Jimmie Joshua is set for 10 am Sunday, outside the Dane County Public Safety Building.
On December 23, 2020, three Dane County deputies tackled Joshua, 30, to the floor of a common area in the Dane County Jail, breaking his pelvis. They then left him in an isolation cell for about 15 hours, before taking him to UW Hospital, where he had extensive surgery to have a metal plate and eight screws placed to repair the broken bones. He spent eight days in the hospital.
Joshua has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $2.5 million in damages to cover ongoing medical costs.
In phone conversations with Madison365, Joshua has alleged that he is not receiving adequate physical therapy. He further alleged that the deputies took a walker he had been using following the surgery, and gave him a cane instead, which he said resulted in two falls. After one fall he had to return to the hospital due to a head injury, he said.
Joshua has a revocation hearing scheduled for Tuesday, where a judge could order him released on bond.
On Sunday, local activists will gather to demand that he be released in order to “receive the necessary therapy that has been denied to him,” according to a Facebook Event posted by the activist organizations Reshaping Madison Together and Alliance for Black Lives – Madison.
The Facebook Event says Joshua’s treatment “is an egregious example of the brutality and negligence that is systemic and commonplace in Dane County Jail. We want to know: what will newly appointed Sheriff Kalvin Barrett do to fix these injustices?”
