Kurt Michael Wallace, 17, tried to hang himself in his city jail cell on Dec. 10.
According to reports from family members and other inmates, once the correction officers at the St. Louis City Justice Center cut Wallace down from the bed sheet, they beat him – just as they had been doing nightly since he arrived.
“That’s just animalistic,” said Redditt Hudson, racial justice associate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. “It’s definitely not the standard that we advertise to the world.”
Wallace, charged with assault when he was 15 and sentenced to 10 years in August 2010, had been at the Justice Center for four months.
On June 23, Wallace and another 17-year-old inmate, Eric Glenn Gray, made national news when they escaped from the Medium Security Institute on Hall Street, also called the city workhouse.
Gray has been charged with murder and has not made a plea.
Soon after the escape, Eugene Stubblefield, superintendent of the city’s Division of Corrections, reported negligence on behalf of the jail’s guards. Two officers were suspended pending an investigation, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Stubblefield did not return calls The American placed on Tuesday and Wednesday requesting comment.
His supervisor, Public Safety Director Charles Bryson, also was called on Tuesday and Wednesday and did not respond.
The inmates told the ACLU that officers at the Justice Center are retaliating because they believe the guards at the Medium Security Institute were disciplined as a result of Wallace and Gray’s escape.
“There are legal avenues to hold him accountable for the escape he made,” Hudson said of Wallace.
“What should not be part of that equation is continuing retribution in the forms of pre-planned and repeated brutal assaults, either by corrections officers or inmates who have been offered drugs or cigarettes or money to continue the assaults on these kids.”
Wallace’s grandmother Jannett Sykes said she called Bryson and his boss, St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay, several times before Wallace attempted suicide, pleading, “Would you please help me to keep them from killing my grandson?”
The day she learned about his attempted suicide – through a phone call from Eric Gray’s family – she called the mayor’s office again. That night Bryson called Sykes and they talked for about 45 minutes. He told her he would look into it, she said.
Slay’s office also did not return a request for comment.
On Dec. 27, Wallace was moved to a diagnostic adult correction facility in Bonne Terre, Mo. Gray is still in the Justice Center. Gray’s mother Marsha Sanders said that her son’s abuse quieted after she spoke with Stubblefield at the center regarding the incidents.
Public defender Mary Fox, who is representing Gray, said she will not make a comment at this time regarding the alleged abuse.
According to interviews conducted by the ACLU, an inmate stated that he witnessed the abuse and accused one guard of paying him and a cellmate to attack Wallace and Gray.
When the guards were unable to arrange an opportunity for the attack, the inmate said he witnessed guards beating Gray while he was handcuffed and not resisting.
Sykes said that guards were allowing other inmates to throw feces and urine into Wallace’s cell through the hole for his food tray. Then they refused to let him bathe.
Wallace could not make phone calls because he didn’t have any money, Sykes said. One guard, who took pity on Wallace, let him use a cell phone to tell his family about the abuse, she said.
However, the night before Wallace attempted suicide, he made a collect call to Sanders because she had been advocating for both of the men.
“He said, ‘I’m tired. They jumped on me again,’” Sanders said. “What’s sad is that they didn’t even call the family to tell them.”
One of the guards told Gray about the suicide attempt, and Gray called Sanders, she said.
Restricting access
After the attempted suicide, the ACLU tried several times to visit Wallace and Gray with no success, Hudson said. Prior to this, ACLU representatives had secured “professional visitor” status for all of its cases. On Dec. 20 a jail employee informed the ACLU that their status has been changed from professional to a “social visitor.” This status requires more paperwork and a longer wait.
John Chasnoff, program director for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, said the change in status was a clear attempt to hamper their ability to quickly investigate allegations of abuse.
In March 2009, the ACLU released a report about civil rights violations in the Justice Center and Medium Security Institute. Since then, Hudson and ACLU associates have been working with corrections administrators to improve conditions.
In June 2009, the St. Louis City Board of Aldermen directed city officials, Justice Center administrators and the ACLU staff to negotiate ways to ensure standards are being adhered to, Hudson said.
Results of these negotiations will be reported soon, he said. But as for the officials inhibiting the ACLU’s ability to see Wallace and Gray, Hudson said, “It’s not in good faith.”
Sykes said she is relieved that her grandson is no longer in the Justice Center.
“These people have your loved one at their mercy,” Sykes said. “They are telling you that everything is all right, but the crap is getting beat out of your loved one, and they aren’t going to tell you that.”
