Redwood Law Office announces two torture chambers in the Coles County Jail have been demolished: Seeking additional Class Action Plaintiffs –

Coles Co., Ill. (ECWd) –

PRESS RELEASE

Redwood Law Office is proud to announce that two torture chambers (Medical Observation 1 & 2) in the Coles County Jail have now been demolished, due to our lawsuits against Coles County and it’s sheriff. (See Photo)

Redwood Law Office is seeking additional plaintiffs for a Class Action Lawsuit that has been filed against Kent Martin, Sheriff of Coles County, Illinois – 25-cv-01068

The Requirements to be a Class Member, entitled to a monetary award, are:
1. You were Locked in a cell/room in the Coles County Jail that had no toilet and/or no drinking water;
2. Any time from February 20, 2023, through the present (2025); and
3. Asked for and were denied relief- refused use of toilet or refused water.

If you may be a Class Member- Call Redwood Law 217-469-9194

In 2024, Redwood Law obtained a substantial settlement for a woman from Paris, who was confined in the hellhole called the Coles County Jail in 2020. She was sent there when the Edgar County Jail was closed down because Edgar County’s insurer refused to provide insurance until the jail came up to minimum standards. She suffered greatly and called our office. She claimed that she and two other women, all pretrial detainees, were locked in a long hallway-type cell that had no toilet, no drinking water, no bunks, no table, just basically a bare concrete block cell. She claimed that they had been pounding on the steel door because they needed to go to the toilet. She claimed that the Jail Administrator came to the door, opened the door and told them “you have to learn patience” and then took them and locked each of them in a tiny cell, about 4 ft by 5 ft, without first taking them to the toilet, and left them in those tiny cells for at least an hour. We filed the lawsuit in 2022, and visited Coles County Jail. We were shown two rooms, called “Medical Observation 1” and “Medical Observation 2”. We obtained jail records verifying that our client was housed in one of these cells for many days. We obtained discovery documents, took depositions, and interviewed several other people who were tortured by the same abuse. Her case convinced us that the County of Coles needed to be sued in a Class Action Lawsuit for this unconstitutional confinement of people who had not yet been convicted of any crime and were simply jailed awaiting a trial to determine whether they had committed the crime charged.

Although we filed the Class Action Lawsuit in February 2025, the two torture chambers (Medical Observation 1 & 2) in the Coles County Jail were in continual use, until the demolition actually started in April 2025! In April and May 2025, private contractors were hired, making an honest days’ living, cutting down block and mortar and bricking off the two cells that used to be visitation booths. But, for more than 10 years, these two cells, known as the “Medical Observation” Cells, were used as a place to put pretrial detainees on suicide watch or with other medical or mental health issues, the most vulnerable people. These “Medical Observation” Cells had NO TOILET and NO ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER. The poor souls who were locked in these cells had to pound on a steel door and ask to get a drink of water or to be taken to a toilet. Redwood Law has received more than 100 affidavits from people who asked and were denied these basic human needs by Coles County Corrections Officers. Many of these people ended up using the floor as a toilet, without toilet paper or water to clean up with. Several women had their periods and were caged without sanitary supplies and ended up bleeding down their legs, with no toilet paper and no water to clean up with. Other people reported that they received only one small cup of koolaid, three times a day with meals, but no water in between meals, even though they begged for a drink of water, while being housed in one of these cells. We have also learned that there are other rooms that have been used as detention cells which have no toilet or drinking water.

For the most part, the people housed in the Coles County Jail are pretrial detainees. That means that they have been charged with a crime(s) but have not been to trial yet and they are presumed to be innocent until they are proven guilty at a trial or plead guilty. Some of our Class Members were never proven guilty of the crime(s) charged and some were let out because the State dismissed the charges. Yet, they were still punished in the jail by being refused the basic human necessities of a toilet and drinking water.

There is no doubt that the conditions of those cells violated federal law that has been established since 1978. In a case decided in 2019, the Seventh Circuit Court of Federal Appeals, which is the Court that oversees federal cases for all of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, stated: “Under the Fourteenth Amendment pretrial detainees are entitled to have enough water for drinking and sanitation and not to be forced to live surrounded by their own and others’ excrement. Water is vital for both health and sanitation. Dehydration affects practically every life function, including temperature regulation, digestion, brain function, toxin elimination, and oxygen distribution. All but the most plainly incompetent jail officials would be aware that it is constitutionally unacceptable to fail to provide inmates with enough water for consumption and sanitation over a three-day period.”

Redwood Law is working diligently to bring an end to the hellish conditions to which Coles County subjects its citizens, when they are put in the jail. We know that new construction has begun. We are waiting to learn the extent of the renovations, which we will seek to learn in this Class Action Lawsuit. At this time, we are asking for everyone who thinks they may be a Class Member to call our office. The Class is still open and taking new members. We expect that, at the conclusion, each Class Member will be compensated for his or her pain, suffering and mental distress, due to having been locked in a cell where the sheriff of Coles County was “plainly incompetent”, when he failed or refused to provide basic humane necessities of drinking water and a toilet for use as needed, resulting in pretrial detainees having to beg for relief and being denied.

In Illinois, it is illegal for a jail to have cells with no toilet and no drinking water. It is also against Illinois law to mistreat an animal by keeping it penned up in its own waste with no drinking water. Please spread the word – Life is Sacred.

Redwood Law Office
P.O. Box 864
St. Joseph, IL 61873
Phone 217-469-9194
Fax 217-469-8094