Mario Williams. (John Disney/ALM)

Atlanta attorneys representing a man held in solitary confinement for 18 months because, as a double  amputee, he couldn't wear the slippers issued by a Tennessee jail, have reached a $375,000 settlement for his ordeal.

Calvin Lofton, 35, was sent to the Williamson County Jail in Franklin, Tennessee, to serve a sentence for a nonviolent theft offense in June 2017 and was released in January 2019.

Lofton has no toes on either foot and must wear tennis shoes in order to walk. Because jail regulations require inmates to wear jail-issued slippers, he was placed in a segregated housing unit "due to his need to have shoes of a nature that were not permitted in general population," according to defense filings.

He remained in isolation until his sentence was up in December 2018.

"It is a crazy situation going on in Tennessee," said Lofton's attorney, Mario Williams, who has another client also suing the Williamson County sheriff and other officials after being confined to solitary because he requires a medical device.

"The issue is serious," said Williams. "They're housing people with disabilities in solitary 23/7 because they're disabled. You can't come into jail with a disability and have them just shut the door on you and forget about you."

Williams, of Atlanta's Nexus Derechos Humanos, represents Lofton with firm colleague Dallas LePierre and William Stover of Nashville's Stover Law Group.

The defendants are represented by Lisa Carson and Lee Thompson of Buerger, Moseley & Carson in Franklin. They did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Tennessee's Middle District, Lofton spent 23 hours a day in solitary throughout his incarceration. When he was allowed out, Lofton could only stay in the jail pod and was not permitted any recreation or outdoor time, according to the complaint.

"If there were problems in any of the pods throughout Williamson County Jail, Calvin Lofton's one hour out of cell time would be taken away from him and he would have to stay in his cell for 24 hours, sometimes for days on end," the complaint said.

When he was allowed out, Lofton used his hour "to make commissary purchases, shower, clean his clothes and call his loved ones."

Lofton also was forbidden to attend any classes or church services or to participate in work details.

Jail rules entitled an inmate involuntarily placed into isolation/solitary confinement to a hearing, but Lofton never had one. In their answer, the defendants admitted that Lofton "never received a hearing regarding his placement in segregated housing, because his segregation was not punitive in nature."

In January, Lofton sued Williamson County Sheriff Dusty Rhoades, former sheriff and current state Department of Safety and Homeland Security Jeff Long, and three jail officers for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, and his rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S Constitution.

The case moved quickly, Williams said.

"We filed the complaint, they filed an answer and then they wanted to move straight to mediation," Williams said.

Following a failed mediation in May, the defense came back with a settlement offer, which Lofton accepted.

The money has been paid, and on Thursday Chief Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. issued an order closing the case.

At the same time he filed Lofton's complaint, Williams filed another on behalf of former Williamson County Jail inmate Brian Johnson, who was booked in December 2017 and immediately sent to solitary confinement, where he remained until March 2019.

Johnson was hit by a shotgun blast when he was 11 in a hunting accident and wears a soft brace on his arm and hand-secured by a fabric fastener.

Because the strap "did not meet jail requirements" Johnson was confined to isolation.

He was offered "no reasonable accommodation" and told that "the only way he would get out of isolation/solitary confinement is to go back in time and get 'unshot,'" his complaint said.

Williams said the county also went to mediation on that case and subsequently offered Johnson a settlement, which he refused.

"Mr. Johnson wants to fight it all the way to court," Williams said. "Hopefully, we'll go to trial and bring some light onto this situation. I never would have believed someone would be put into isolation because of their disability. This has got to stop."