ST. LOUIS (CN) - Jails in Ferguson, Mo., and nearby Jennings are little more than modern-day debtors' prisons for people so poor they can't afford to pay traffic tickets, 15 people claim in two federal class actions against the cities.
Lead plaintiff Keilee Fant sued Ferguson with 10 other named plaintiffs. Fant also is a plaintiff in lead plaintiff Samantha Jenkins' lawsuit against Jennings.
The plaintiffs call themselves "impoverished people" in both Feb. 8 complaints.
They claim they were jailed because they could not pay fines for traffic violations and other minor offenses.
"Although the plaintiffs pleaded that they were unable to pay due to their poverty, each was held in jail indefinitely and none was afforded a lawyer or the inquiry into their ability to pay that the United States Constitution requires," the complaints state. "Instead, they 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 city jail officials decided, days or weeks later, to let them out for free."
The plaintiffs say they languished in deplorable conditions inside the jails.
"They are kept in overcrowded cells; they are denied toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap; they are subjected to the constant stench of excrement and refuse in their congested cells; they are surrounded by walls smeared with mucus and blood; they are kept in the same clothes for days and weeks without access to laundry or clean underwear; 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 develop untreated illnesses and infections in open wounds that spread to other inmates; they endure days and weeks without being allowed to use the moldy shower; their filthy bodies huddle in cold temperatures with a single thin blanket even as they beg guards for warm blankets; they are not given adequate hygiene products for menstruation; they are routinely denied vital medical care and prescription medication, even when their families beg to be allowed to bring medication to the jail; they are provided food so insufficient and lacking in nutrition that inmates lose significant amounts of weight; they suffer from dehydration out of fear of drinking foul smelling water that comes from an apparatus on top of the toilet; and they must listen to the screams of other inmates languishing from unattended medical issues as they sit in their cells without access to books, legal materials, television, or natural light," the complaints state. "Perhaps worst of all, they do not know when they will be allowed to leave."
Conditions in the Jennings jail are so bad that when groups of inmates are brought to court, courtroom staff "often walks down the hallway spraying Fabreze because the stench emanating from the inmates is unbearable," according to the 62-page complaint against Jennings.
The plaintiffs claim that Ferguson issues more arrest warrants per capita than any Missouri city with more than 10,000 residents. In 2014, Ferguson issued an average of more than 3.6 arrest warrants per household and almost 2.2 arrest warrants for every adult, in cases mostly involving unpaid traffic tickets, according to the 55-page complaint.