Jailed

Lawsuit: Trans Woman Jailed Because She Didn’t Pay a $15 Seatbelt Fine

She wanted to report to the Cobb County Police Department that her car had been damaged a week earlier. Now, Sierra Castle is suing Cobb County, Sheriff Neil Warren, and Col. Janet Price over her experience at the Cobb County jail. In Colorado, after Lindsay Saunders-Velez was sexually harassed and assaulted in a male prison, she sued the state Department of Corrections for failing to protect …


Alabama Town Agrees in Settlement to Stop Operating Debtors’ Prison

The settlement has been preliminarily approved by the U.S. District Court in Montgomery. The court will hold a final hearing in August to decide whether to formally approve the agreement. In a town where almost 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, at least 190 impoverished people were jailed for nonpayment within a two-year period.


Alabama City Accused of Jailing Poor People Reaches Legal Settlement

An Alabama city reached a legal settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center Tuesday to end a class action lawsuit that accused it, and its chief of police, of illegally jailing people too poor to pay fines resulting from traffic and misdemeanor offences. The City of Alexander and Chief of Police Willie Robinson were accused of jailing at least 190 impoverished people over a two-year period, …


Woman Sues Washington County After Facebook Comment Lands Her in Jail

A Washington County woman claims that her ex-husband, a deputy sheriff, got her jailed for a critical Facebook post. In a lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court, Anne King claims that she asked Deputy Corey King in January 2015 to pick up medicine for their sick child. Her ex-husband refused, she said, claiming he was too busy.