A family and their attorney have questions after an inmate at the Madison County jail died days after he was released from the detention center.

Larry Thompson, 51, was arrested on Nov. 17 by the Canton Police Department and held in the Madison County jail, according to Madison County Sheriff's Department spokesman Heath Hall. Thompson was released on Nov. 28, Hall said Thursday. Thompson died three days later.

Thompson's family told WJTV-TV that he was healthy when he was incarcerated. However, Hall said Thompson seemed ill while he was at the jail and was monitored out of an abundance of caution. The family says when Thompson left the jail he was nearly unconscious and unable to use his legs.

The family said witnesses told them Madison County jail workers beat Thompson, a claim that Hall vehemently denied.

According to WJTV, Thompson was admitted to St. Dominic's Hospital and both of his legs were amputated before he died.

"Sadly, this is not the first case where Madison County has been questioned about how they handle inmates of color," the family’s attorney, Carlos Moore, said.

Moore said the family wants compensation or a federal lawsuit will be filed.

"It’s very suspicious that an otherwise healthy 51-year-old male would go into the jail and basically come out shortly after dead. We have an eyewitness to the beating in jail, Moore said. "We know something went awry while he was there."

Hall added that the statements by Moore are "unfortunate, destructive and wrong."

Moore is also representing the family of a woman who died in custody at the Madison County jail on Dec. 23. Lanekia Brown, 37, was taken into custody on Nov. 26 after a traffic stop in Madison yielded 103 pounds of marijuana, according to the Madison County Sheriff's Department.

The results of an autopsy by the state medical examiner's office have yet to be released. The family has retained a private forensic pathologist for its own autopsy, Moore has said.

More:A second autopsy will be performed on woman who died in Madison County jail