Alabama and Wexford Health Pay Undisclosed Settlement for Delays Costing Prisoner Partial Foot Amputation
by Chuck Sharman
In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on January 26, 2026, state prisoner Joseph Allen Renney said that he had reached agreements with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) and its contracted medical provider, Wexford Health Services, settling claims he filed against them over amputation of his toes and part of his foot. The partial amputation allegedly resulted from inadequate medical care that Renney received for an infection. While a victory for Renney, the settlement and its payout amounts remain shielded from PLN.
Renney, now 60, is diabetic. He was incarcerated at Limestone Correctional Facility in March 2021 when he broke his left big toe and it “quickly became infected,” according to the complaint he later filed. He was sent to an outside podiatrist in early April, who recommended partial amputation of the tip of the toe “the sooner the better” to stop the infection’s spread. Instead, Renney got oral antibiotics that failed to quell the infection and gauze to clean his festering wound himself. He waited until July 2021 to see an outside podiatrist again for what was supposed to be the surgery.
However, an unnamed guard derailed the surgery, telling the podiatrist that Renney was there only for a “consult.” Not coincidentally, according to his complaint, Renney had just spoken with an attorney from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which had recently filed suit accusing the DOC of deliberate indifference to unconstitutional conditions of confinement in state prisons, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Apr. 2021, p.34.]
That delay proved costly. By the time Renney finally got surgery in October 2021, he lost the entire toe on that foot. But his ordeal wasn’t over. Four months later, in February 2022, he was trying to navigate the prison stairs in his medical boot—he’d never been given orthopedic footwear—and ripped off the tip of the second toe on the same foot. The infection quickly spread, and the toe “literally rotted off” while Renney waited for care, the complaint continued. Once again, it was months before he underwent surgery in August 2022, losing the second toe in its entirety. After a third surgery in October 2022, he had lost all the toes on the foot and the first inch of its remainder, too.
That left Renney in a wheelchair when his complaint was filed in March 2023, with the aid of attorneys Richard A. Rice of the Rice Law Firm in Birmingham and Andrew Menefee of the Law Office of John Batson in Augusta, Georgia. They were joined in July 2023 by Laua Bonds and fellow attorneys from the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) in Washington, D.C. The parties eventually proceeded to mediation in 2025, reaching their settlement agreements when it concluded. See: Renney v. Ala. Dep’t of Corr., USDC (N.D. Ala.), Case No. 5:23-cv-00361.
Renney is just the latest Alabama prisoner to secure payment for toe loss claims related to the state’s miserable health system. As PLN reported, prisoner Canyon Duff Moye won a $400,000 verdict from a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in May 2024 against Wexford Medical Director Dr. Manuel Pouparina. [See: PLN, Jan. 2025, p.29.]
The DOJ got the district court to assign a special master to oversee its case just about the same time that Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) re-assumed office in January 2025. The suit was initially filed in the waning days of Trump’s first term, but one of his first executive orders issued upon his return to the White House directed the DOJ to freeze all civil rights litigation. As a result, the case remains pending. See: United States v. Ala., USDC (N.D. Ala.), Case No. 2:20-cv-01971.
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Related legal cases
Renney v. Ala. Dep’t of Corr.
| Year | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (N.D. Ala.), Case No. 5:23-cv-00361. |
| Level | District Court |
United States v. Ala.
| Year | 2021 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (N.D. Ala.), Case No. 2:20-cv-01971 |
| Level | District Court |