I used a carriage to go from Whiterun to Markarth. I went through Markarth and picked up both Unusual Gems. Suddenly, I realized that Vigilance and Jenassa are nowhere to be found! I looked everywhere I could think of....finally, I gave up and used the console to transport myself to Jenassa.

Lo and behold! Both her AND Vigilance were in Whiterun's jail! Is there any explanation as to why this would be (other than "they committed a crime, hur hur")? I've never heard of this happening before, followers being sent to jail. The only thing I did before this was clear out Whiterun's Hall of the Dead for Andur's and found his Arkay amulet.

Strange, no?

Never had that happen.

Hmm...I take that back. I "acquired" the Unusual Gem from Ballin' Balgruuf's quarters before heading to Markarth. Through some cursory research, it seems as though sometimes followers can be marked as trespassing depending on the route they take to follow you.

I also have UFO installed...wonder if that had anything to do with it?

Followers getting put in jail lol.

I don't understand why I can tell Mjoll to kill someone but I'll be the one charged for the crime... dumb.

In Gophers current let's play his follower (from Dragonborn) ended up in the local clink.

Weird.

Must be a mod; historically, gamesas never added a "Go to Jail" and "Pay my fine" mechanism that NPCs to use. This is why that whenever a NPC got caught pickpocketing in Oblivion, they had the whole city watch on their tail...

Anyways for Jenassa there's a glitch that's listed on the wiki.

It says something about she sometimes glitches into the jail if you go into Jorrvakor.