As inmates threw burning furniture out of broken windows on the fourth floor of the City Justice Center on Feb. 6, the city had 72 jail guard vacancies and 100 pending applications for those jobs.
The interviews for those positions are now underway and the task force created by St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson to investigate the jail’s conditions presented a list of recommendations on Friday — over 60 in total, but 13 they consider matters of urgency.
The task force’s chairman is The Rev. Darryl Gray, a local criminal justice activist. He says the task force was allowed into the City Justice Center and found that one of the main issues facing inmates is that they are only allowed out of their cells for one hour a day to shower, make phone calls and participate in other activities.
“We were able to talk to detainees that represented the various wings, and we visited every floor,” he said. “I think that the concerns they registered in the media after the uprising were the same things that they told us. Their concerns were consistent across the board — no movement and no visitation, they simply felt isolated, they were uncertain about the COVID pandemic and how it might impact them.”
The 13 urgent recommendations included things such as increasing dayroom recreation, implementing tablets for virtual visitation, upgrading the electronic security system and constructing maximum security gates, auditing the length of stay of current detainees and creating a civilian oversight board for the corrections division — that being the task force’s highest priority issue, according to Gray.
“Just as police cannot investigate police, we do not believe it would be proper or transparent if correctional staff interviewed or investigated correctional staff about incidents that take place in the facility,” Gray said. “So, we thought that was the number one issue.”
The full task force report can be accessed at https://bit.ly/3bNvqFS.
In a joint statement, Krewson and Public Safety Director Judge Jimmie Edwards thanked the task force and said that they will immediately begin to review the recommendations — adding they believe they have begun working on some of them already.
Before these recommendations were made, officials approved a $1.5 million budget transfer Feb. 17 to repair the broken locks at the St. Louis City Justice Center. Edwards said those broken cell locks was one of the main reasons the inmates were able to take over the fourth floor.
As for the job vacancies now being filled, Corrections Commissions Dale Glass submitted an emergency request just days after the protest to Comptroller Darlene Green. In that request, he asked her to approve a $1.2 million contract with Whelan Security Co. for private security services at the CJC.
Glass wrote the money would provide 15 additional security guards working every day at the CJC until the end of the year.
On Feb 16, in an email chain regarding the private security contracts, Green wrote that she could not approve the request for outside private service because of 72 vacant positions and 100 pending applications.
Director of Personnel Richard Frank noted in the same email chain that the request for the 72 corrections officer positions had been made the week prior. He said it appeared the vacancies had been held due to the planned closure of the city’s second jail, the Medium Security Institution — better known as the Workhouse.
The Board of Aldermen passed Board Bill 92 unanimously on July 17, which was based on a plan by the Close the Workhouse Campaign. The bill directed Glass to begin the process of closing the Workhouse permanently by presenting a plan with a closure date set for no later than Dec. 31.
It remains operational and in fact, several inmates were transferred there following the Feb.6 CJC uprising as well as protests prior to that.
While Glass, Frank and Green were not available for comment, Gray said that he was told by officials about 60 jail guard applicants had been interviewed by the first week of March.
“The thing that is just as concerning is even after you hire them you are looking at very easily 45 or 60 days of training,” Gray said. “Because you can’t just throw people in there. Even though some of the folks may be correctional officers already, you’ve got to acclimate them to the culture there.”
