KALAMAZOO, MI – Timothy L. Hamilton says he's not about to run out of toilet paper at home.

These days, he claims, he hoards it.

The former Kalamazoo County Jail inmate has filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that deputies there denied him and other prisoners toilet paper, leaving them to use their boxers and T-shirts to wipe themselves.

“While being in the Kalamazoo, Michigan County Jail, we (inmates) were not given tissue for several days,” Hamilton alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. “We had to rip our boxers, socks, T-shirts in order to wipe ourselves, and had to take 3 or more showers daily to stay clean.

“One officer said, ‘Wipe it with your hands and quit crying. It could be worse.’”

MORE: Read the lawsuit (PDF)

Kalamazoo County Corporate Counsel Thom Canny said Friday he had yet to see the lawsuit and declined to comment for this report.

Undersheriff Pali Matyas confirmed Friday that Hamilton was last booked into the county jail on Jan. 31, 2012 on a charge of assaulting a police officer. He was released Feb. 21, 2012.

In response to Hamilton's lawsuit, Matyas said, "I can safely say we've never had a shortage of toilet paper here at the jail."

Timothy L. Hamilton

Hamilton alleges that his experience at the jail has affected him mentally. Among other things he said, “I keep playing it over & over in my head” and “Now I buy – too much tissue so I won’t run out at home. Now mentally I have fear of running out.”

“The officers got to the point they were like, ‘The whole (expletive) jail is out so quit (expletive) asking,” Hamilton wrote. “ ... Moreover; the officers were making jokes, ‘Wipe your ass like monkeys do.’ That was very painful to hear ... ”

Hamilton wrote the six-page complaint in December from the Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix, Ariz., where he was being held, court documents show. MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette was unable to get information on Hamilton's status from the Arizona jail Friday.

Hamilton's lawsuit claims his 8th and 14th amendment constitutional rights were violated. He is seeking $400,000 each in compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney fees.

Contact Rex Hall Jr. at rhall2@mlive.com. Follow him on Twitter.