“THREAD: There are 9,000 people caged in the downtown Houston jail, most of them solely because they can’t pay cash. The situation is getting dire: ‘We don’t have any running water anymore.’ … People are sleeping on floors, toilets are clogged and covered in plastic bags because of the smell. People report not being given drinking water. When asked about water, guards have said: ‘you shouldn’t have f**ing gotten locked up.’ … There are still over 50 children trapped inside the adult jail, many of them because their families can’t get the $$$. … Despite desperate pleas from the Sheriff, the DA and District Court judges have declined to hold individual hearings to even consider releasing people on the lowest cash bail. People are trapped there because our society lets prosecutors and judges do this.” —Alec Karakatsanis of The Civil Rights Corps