Judge Amber Wolf (image source)

On Friday morning, Judge Amber Wolf, who serves Kentucky’s District Court 30, presiding over Jefferson County, was incensed when she learned that a female prisoner brought before the court had spent the past 72 hours without pants or feminine hygiene products because guards had refused to give them to her.

The young woman appearing before court had been taken into custody when she failed to start a diversion program for a first-time shoplifting charge and was sentenced to 75 days in county jail. In the video below, it’s immediately apparent that Judge Wolf is incredulous that she’s been held in custody for several days for failing diversion.

Judge Wolf: “Do you have other charges? Have you ever picked up any other charges?”

Defendant: “No.”

Judge Wolf: “Okay, I’m not accepting this sentence. That’s ridiculous. I’m sentencing you to… how long have you been in custody?”

Defendant: “Um, well, they picked me up in [unintelligible] on Sunday morning.”

Judge Wolf: “And you have no charges anywhere?”

The irritation of Wolf at the system is obvious at this point, but then, things go from bad to worse when the public defender assigned to the case speaks up.

Public Defender: “The jail also refused to give her pants.”

Judge Wolf: “No pants? What?”

Defendant: “I came in with this on Sunday.”

There’s a brief pause as the Judge tries to wrap her head around what she’s just heard.

Judge Wolf: “Excuse me?!”

The public defender continues elaborating for a few moments.

Judge Wolf: “This is outrageous. [She takes out her phone to call the jail.] This can’t wait.”

She then tells the court this is “gonna take a little bit.” She immediately calls the jail and orders representatives over to explain why there’s a prisoner in her courtroom who has been denied pants and feminine hygiene products.

In an aside to the defendant while on the phone, Judge Wolf says, “I’m not trying to embarrass you. I’m very sorry. Can we get her something to cover up with? Anything? Anything. Anything. I don’t care what it is.”

At the bailiff’s suggestion, the defendant is taken out of the room and given something to wear.

But Judge Wolf isn’t done. She immediately changes her sentence to a $100 fine and credit for time served.

“Who — it’s a shoplifting charge, a first-time shoplifting charge. 75 days? No, we’re not doing that. What, am I in the twilight zone? What is happening?”

A few moments later, she gets a jail supervisor on the phone.

“This is Judge Wolf in Courtroom 102. How are you, today? I have a defendant who has been in y’all’s jail for three days, who is standing in front of me completely pantless. Has no pants on. She has requested pants for three days and has been denied pants for three days. She has no pants, and she is in court. And she has also been denied feminine hygiene products. What the hell is going on?… I am holding her here until she is dressed appropriately to go back to the jail. This is outrageous. This cannot happen. And she was brought in from Fayette County.”

Wolf ends the conversation just in time for two officials from the jail to report to her with an explanation. It’s difficult to make out what’s being said among the three, and there’s no telling the role the two male officials played in the incident, but there’s something undeniably powerful at the sight of this 34 year-old woman judge ever-so-politely grilling what sounds like two good ol’ boys over the mistreatment of a female inmate.

Judge Wolf then turns to the public defender and the bailiff and tells them she wishes they had told her prior to presenting the defendent so that the young woman wouldn’t have been humiliated.

Finally, the Judge brought out the now-clothed young woman and gave her a public apology:

“Again, I want to extend my deepest apologies to you for the way that you’ve been treated in our jail. This is not normal, and I’ve never seen it happen.”

The defendant then informs Judge Wolf that she saw many female inmates who lacked clothing. At this, you can notice Wolf becomes even more irritated with the conduct of jail officials.

After further apologizing and explaining why the initial sentence was incredibly unjust, Judge Wolf seems to come close to advising the defendant to take some sort of legal action against the County but demurs, saying it would be inappropriate of her to voice that opinion.