This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Ps sued D on civil rights violations. Ps were poor and were jailed by D because they were unable to pay a debt owed to D from traffic tickets or other minor offenses. Even though Ps pleaded that they were unable to pay due to their poverty, each was kept in jail indefinitely, and none was afforded a lawyer or the inquiry into their ability to pay that the United States Constitution requires. Ps were threatened, abused, and left to languish in confinement at the mercy of local officials until their frightened family members could produce enough cash to buy their freedom or until D's jail officials decided, days or weeks later, to let them out for free. Ps were kept in overcrowded cells; denied toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap; they are subjected to the stench of excrement and refuse in their congested cells; they are surrounded by walls smeared with mucus, blood, and feces; they are kept in the same clothes for days and weeks without access to laundry or clean undergarments; they step on top of other inmates, whose bodies cover nearly the entire uncleaned cell floor, in order to access a single shared toilet that the City does not clean; they huddle in cold temperatures with a single thin blanket even as they beg guards for warm blankets; they develop untreated illnesses and infections in open wounds that spread to other inmates. Ps sleep next to a shower space overgrown with mold and slimy debris; they endure days and weeks without being allowed to use the shower. Women are not given adequate hygiene products for menstruation, and the lack of trash removal has on occasion, forced women to leave bloody napkins in full view on the cell floor where inmates sleep. They were routinely denied vital medical care and prescription medication, even when their families begged to be allowed to bring medication to the jail. They are provided food so insufficient and lacking in nutrition that inmates are forced to compete to perform demeaning janitorial labor for extra food rations and exercise. They were forced to listen to the screams of other inmates being beaten or tased or in shrieking pain from unattended medical issues as they sit in their cells without access to books, legal materials, television, or natural light. They were denied access to counsel and had no idea when they were to be allowed to leave. Inmates have committed suicide in the Jennings jail after being confined there solely because they did not have enough money to buy their freedom. Jenkins (P) has been jailed for unpaid debts by D on numerous occasions over the past 15 years. D never provided her an attorney and never made any meaningful inquiry into her indigence prior to jailing her or during her confinement. Ms. Jenkins (P) spent months languishing in dangerous conditions solely because she was too poor to buy her release. D has imprisoned Jenkins (P) on at least 19 occasions, including on warrants relating to her nonpayment and instances in which she turned herself in after missing payments. She would sometimes be held for up to a week before being taken to a judicial officer. On many occasions, she told the City prosecutor and judge that she could not afford to make any payments. In response, City officials told her that she could not get out of jail unless she paid the City money. Instead of informing her of her right to an attorney, City officials told her to make a phone call to her family to get money for her release. In late November 2012, Jenkins (P) was released from 18 months in state prison for a technical parole violation in a case having nothing to do with D. Jenkins (P) went to D to clear up the warrant in early December 2012. Instead of being given a court date, she was jailed. She would have been released if she had paid $1,500. In court, she was not given an attorney and then told to pay $1,500 with no inquiry as to her ability to pay. She appeared again the next week and was told to pay $300. Eventually, her family borrowed the money, and she was released. She was given a return court date, and when she appeared again, she was told she owed $1,800. The judge ordered her to pay $100 a month. Jenkins (P) told the judge she was just out of prison and had no job. She was told that if she missed a payment, she would be jailed. Jenkins (P) borrowed money to make the payments. After additional appearances and nonpayment, a warrant was issued for her arrest. D removed the warrant when Jenkins’ (P) current attorneys appeared. Jenkins (P) was living in extreme poverty. The conditions under which the women were kept were right out of the Middle Ages. They were in an extremely small room with no blankets (15-16 women) with having to sleep on eating tables, never being let outside, inadequate food, with guards taunting them, and unsanitary conditions. Many others experienced the same treatment. The threat of being jailed for non-payment by D was a fact of life for too many. D uses its municipal court and its jail as significant sources of revenue generation. D even locks the doors when these special hearings are conducted, and if you come late and owe money, too bad, a warrant will be issued for your arrest. D punished 1000s of people with no ability to pay. Ps’ right to the effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments were violated. D’s use of indefinite and arbitrary detention violates Due Process.

The legal issues presented in this case will be displayed here.

The court's holding and decision will be displayed here.

Legal analysis from Dean's Law Dictionary will be displayed here.