ArchCity Defenders and their co-counsel DLA Piper on Thursday requested an emergency hearing to be held Friday to address living conditions for inmates at the Medium Security Institution, otherwise known as the Workhouse.
In the motion, attorneys outlined what they’ve heard from inmates at the Workhouse, including frigid temperatures and a lack of warm bedding. In addition, inmates say they’re victims of “flagrantly retaliatory behavior” including the use of pepper spray by correctional officers.
In supplemental documents, Matthew Mahaffey, the District Defender of the St. Louis City Trial Office of the Missouri State Public Defender, described his visit to see two clients detained at the Workhouse on Wednesday.
According to Mahaffey, one inmate told him that a jail employee attempted to assault him when he tried to use the facility’s phone. Another told him he was pepper sprayed while hanging his arm out of the chuckhole and wasn’t allowed to shower afterward for 24 hours.
Both inmates he spoke to described frigid temperatures in their cells, with only one sheet to keep warm. In addition, they both said they’re being confined to their cells 23 hours a day.
They have also both tested positive for COVID-19, were part of a protest in January and were included in the group of more than 50 men moved from CJC to the Workhouse.
In the emergency motion, ArchCity wrote that they “received phone calls from family members of individuals incarcerated at MSI — as well as a few incarcerated individuals themselves — all of which uniformly describe the jail as a dirty, freezing cold facility, haphazardly repurposed by the City as a dumping ground for COVID-19 positive detainees. Many of these same individuals have further related that officers retaliate against detainees with impunity.”
The motion asked the court to compel city officials to allow attorneys access to inspect the Workhouse and speak with inmates about the conditions. They also requested building temperature logs from Nov. 1 through Thursday.
Attorneys filed the motion in a class action civil rights complaint case that began back in November 2017 regarding the “hellish and inhuman” conditions at the Workhouse. Among other requests, the complaint asks the court to “issue an order that the Workhouse be closed, all pre-trial detainees released, and all post-conviction detainees relocated.”