Lack of air conditioning inside a Wayne County courthouse prompted one judge to write a scathing post on Facebook.
"It is a shame that we have to continue to work in these conditions. It is even more shameful that we ask the public to come to court and sit in crowded hallways of a terrible building with no air," wrote Judge Karen Braxton who works in the Lincoln Hall of Justice on East Forest in Detroit.
Braxton's post went on to detail that the children who have been detained are being held in Wayne County vans because it's too hot to "have them wait in the holding cells."
The most recent issues plaguing the building have to do with electricity.
The power to the complex was knocked out in a storm earlier this week and while a massive generator has been brought in to power up the lights and computers, the air conditioner is still out.
Portable air conditioning units called chillers have been brought in to cool the building, but they are not working.
7 Action News reached out to a spokesman for Wayne County Executive Warren Evans who tells us that there are no plans to move the courts to a better building but they are exploring options to address the issues.
It's still too soon to tell if the chillers will be working by Monday.
Judge Braxton could not be reached for comment, but her Facebook post included the following:
The remedy: we can cancel our dockets. But how does this serve the public? My clerk can't leave, my sheriff can't leave, my court reporter can't leave. And more importantly, the people who have cases today would be unfairly disadvantaged b/c they have made their way to the court only to find out that the judge canceled the docket because it was too hot. People want their kids returned to their care, their kids released from placement, a chance to address bond, they want their cases heard.
Click on the video to hear from Third Circuit Court Chief Judge Robert Colombo Jr.
