Lawsuit filed against Shelby County justice system asks, 'Where are the missing prisoners?'

 
Just City, a local nonprofit committed to criminal justice reform, has filed a $10 million class-action lawsuit in partnership with attorney Clayborn Ferguson.

Hundreds of Shelby County citizens have been held unconstitutionally in the Shelby County Jail since early November after a $10 million Offender Management System failed.

Inmates are being wrongfully imprisoned for longer than necessary, held without bond set, sleeping outside of cells and being kept in parts of the jail not designed for housing inmates, according to Josh Spickler, director of Just City. 
 
Ferguson is the lead counsel and already had drafted complaint on behalf of his client who had gone missing in the jail due to the faulty software. Just City Executive Director, Josh Spickler, signed on as co-counsel. The two attorneys are looking for additional plaintiffs.
 
The Offender Management System was part of a major overhaul of the computer systems by Shelby County IT. When the jail turned the system on in early November, it did not work and there was no back up plan in place. Without a viable system, courts cannot obtain the records of those imprisoned in order to dispose of their cases.
 
“It is a clear violation of not just civil rights but human rights," said Spickler. “There are international laws about the treatment of people who are incarcerated and those laws are being violated here in Shelby County.”
 
The improper care of prisoners compounds the problem of an increasing prison population, even as property and drug crimes are down. Violent crime has seen an uptick, but Spickler says that is not enough to account for the population growth.

In fact, jail bookings have gone down, which points to longer stays as the culprit for the rising numbers. Spickler attributes this disparity to the policies of the prosecutor’s office.

“The prosecutor’s office oversees whether and how to pursue convictions and what level of sentence to seek. The Attorney General’s office in this community has historically been very aggressive in the pursuit of long and very punishing sentences," Spickler said.

"Therefore, there is little incentive to enter a guilty plea when facing that sort of long sentence. You instead might decide to take your chance with a jury trial, extending your stay.”
 
The effects on those imprisoned extended beyond due process. Many of those incarcerated lose jobs, cars and houses during their stay.

“Most of us don’t understand what it would be like to be lifted out of our lives for a week with very little control over our money— if we have any—without ability to communicate with our employer, our family, our landlord and with debts that are often due on a daily basis when living in poverty. So, your life begins to crumble very quickly when you are detained unnecessarily,” said Spickler.
 
Just City’s hope is that the Sheriff, who has not yet responded to the lawsuit, addresses the illegal violations of the jail and implements a plan to overcome the failure of the software system.

"As long as it is not addressed, the class of plaintiffs for this lawsuit and the number of wrongfully imprisoned citizens will continue to grow. In the meantime, the Sherriff’s Office continues to book people in jail, knowing the issues have not been remedied," Spickler said.
 
Besides the human cost and the morality issue, there are financial implications. Local employers have to hire other people to take on the roles of those left in jail. People who leave the justice system find themselves unemployed and incur extra cost to the city and taxpayers.

It costs Shelby County about $107 per day to detain one prisoner, according to Just City's findings. The cost of hundreds of people held extra days, in addition to $10 million for this broken system, means Shelby County citizens are footing the bill for this unconstitutional human rights violation.
 
“This is not a money grab,” Spickler says. “This is about making sure that we have a jail that is run in a constitutional, safe, and effective way with the least cost to Shelby County as possible and the least onerous to the people who are brought into it so that we can limit the damage of the criminal justice system.”