A class of Shelby County Jail inmates has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Shelby County Government over the jail’s crumbling infrastructure and jail staff’s own description of “ongoing inhumane and cruel conditions.”
The lawsuit alleges multiple constitutional violations, including violations of inmates’ Fourteenth and Eighth Amendment rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act. It also asks for an independent monitor to be appointed to oversee compliance.
Shelby County Mayor Mickell Lowery, Sheriff Anthony Buckner, and the entire Shelby County Commission are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Five inmates — Thaddeus Norris, Eric Wallace, Ahmad Walton, Vintrell White and Enoch Zarceno-Turner — are the named plaintiffs
hoping to represent the full class of 201 Poplar detainees.
"The record here isn't disputed — it comes largely from the county's own constituents, the county's own jail inspectors, and the county's own former sheriff," said Stella Yarbrough, one of the attorneys representing the inmates, in a press release. "The people held at 201 Poplar are legally presumed innocent, and even those who have been convicted are entitled to be held somewhere that doesn't put their health and safety at serious risk. These conditions have been documented and flagged for years. What's needed now is a court order requiring the county to actually fix them."
If successful in appointing a monitor, it would not be the first time the jail has had outside oversight. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Justice found the jail's conditions violated inmates' constitutional rights and Shelby County entered into a monitoring agreement with the DOJ.
That agreement was later dissolved after the jails conditions and policies were updated.
The jail has been a contentious conversation in county government over the last few years.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office oversees the facility, and both the current and former sheriffs have called for a new building. Both the current and former mayors have commented on the building’s poor condition. The Shelby County Commission has sanctioned feasibility studies to build a new jail or repair 201 Poplar.
But no concrete action has been taken.
The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 14 by the inmates represented by a Nashville law firm, details a summer plagued with issues: Chronic air conditioning failures, leaving the facility as hot as 95 degrees with 100% humidity; water, sewage and diesel fuel flooding around the jail; and infestations of mold and pests.
It also notes the jail is frequently overcrowded and understaffed, facts that have been pointed to by Sheriff Anthony Buckner as a reason to build a new, bigger facility.
Buckner, during a tour of the jail on his first day as sheriff, frequently said the conditions of the jail affect both the inmates and the staff. Staff at the jail, in June, wrote to Shelby County officials to directly voice their concerns.
That letter was included in the lawsuit as an exhibit.
“The air conditioning unit stopped working on Sunday, June 7, 2026,” the letter from jail staff read. “Be advised, due to prolonged heat exhaustion, the inmates and employees are experiencing heavy sweating, weakness, dizziness, nausea, and a rapid, weak pulse and more are giving the appearance of seizing. There is no ventilation whatsoever in these particular areas. Also, mold toxicity occurs when prolonged exposure to indoor mold triggers systemic inflammation and immune diseases.”
The letter added, at its end: “More frequently, inmates are being transporting [sic] to the ER due to their symptoms. I am requesting your immediate assistance at this time.”
The lawsuit also alleged the new cell doors that have been installed at the jail “cut off airflow into the cells.” In late 2024, the county approved emergency funding for the sheriff’s office to replace the doors after a power surge caused the locking mechanisms to break.
The old doors had bars along the top which allowed air into the cells when they were closed. Now, according to the lawsuit, the doors block air conditioning that is pumped into the pod areas of a cell block.
Intake delays have long plagued the jail, with the latest sheriff’s office report card showing a 57-hour wait time for booking. The Commercial Appeal previously reported in July 2025 there were nearly 400 people in the intake area while they waited for a cell to become available.
The lawsuit takes aim at the intake backlog, saying one of the plaintiffs in the class action waited 26 days in intake before being assigned a cell.
In requesting relief, the lawsuit wants a federal judge to declare the conditions at the jail violate people’s constitutional rights, that the jail’s practices violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, enter a permanent injunction requiring the conditions be improved, and that the court appoint an independent monitor of the jail.
Read the lawsuit
Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, and followed on X @LucasFinton.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County Jail inmates file class action civil rights lawsuit
