The Michigan family of a federal inmate who died a year after being released from prison and the government have settled lawsuits alleging medical negligence in the man's death for $975,000.

The agreement covers all claims brought by Mary Bell of Dearborn Heights, Mich., against the federal government related to the death of her son, 39-year-old Timothy Bell. Timothy Bell was a drug offender from Michigan serving time in prison in Inez, near the Kentucky-West Virginia state line, when a doctor ordered a biopsy of a mass in his right arm pit.

The biopsy wasn't done for more than a year, by which time Bell had stage 3 or stage 4 cancer, which resulted in his death in December 2010.

The settlement covers two lawsuits filed in federal court in Pikeville.