This week the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri released a scathing report on conditions in two correctional facilities operated by the City of St. Louis under the Department of Public Safety. Its findings indict many of the staff who police the jails, Superintendent Eugene Stubblefield and two Public Safety Department directors, Charles Bryson and his predecessor, Sam Simon. Ultimately, it calls into question the top leadership of the city, as Mayor Francis G. Slay appointed both Simon and Bryson, and the director of Public Safety reports directly to the mayor.
A front-page news report in today’s American outlines the report’s disturbing claims of medical neglect, physical abuse, and ghastly incompetence and disregard for the value of human life. Indeed, the study’s subtitle – “Human Rights Abuses in St. Louis Correctional Centers” – puts it squarely in a tradition of reporting most often seen conducted by the likes of Amnesty International in distant, marginal, poor, corrupt nations.
As usual, the Mayor’s Office and the mayor’s department directors did not comment to us. Acting chief of staff and city counselor Patricia Hageman did respond to the Post-Dispatch, dismissing the report because it relies on anonymous sources.
The Post story by Jeremy Kohler – who has considerable investigative skills – does not suggest that Kohler has been turned loose to investigate the report’s allegations, in light of the Slay administration’s haughty refusal to take such a damning and detailed report seriously. The St. Louis American’s previous reporting on claims of abuse in the Justice Center turned up a large volume of inmate letters. St. Louis American reporter Jessica Bassett verified several of these claims, and we would share this evidence with the Post in such a matter of obvious public concern – particularly for the black community, which suffers disproportionately from the criminal justice system at every point.
Also, we call upon the anonymous sources interviewed by Redditt Hudson of the ACLU to stand forward and identify themselves, as they did to Hudson and our reporter, who contributed to the earliest source-gathering stage of the ACLU report.
Kohler’s story in the Post quotes Hudson regarding the “atmosphere of intimidation and retaliation” that reigns in the City jails and that is the real reason that makes these individuals within the system reluctant to identify themselves. As we routinely report, this “atmosphere of intimidation and retaliation” extends far outside the walls of the City jails to infect and corrode much of our political process as it is currently practiced, under the leadership of Slay and the heavy-handed political organization fronted by this mild-mannered-appearing mayor.
The Slay machine has schemed to get support for his re-election campaign from pliant, African-American elected officials. Only four black aldermen withheld their endorsement of slay and his blandishments, yet they all represent constituents who have serious reservations about the mayor’s conduct in office.
For years Redditt Hudson, a former City cop, has shown courage in speaking out about abuses in local law enforcement. Now he has shown the same passion for justice in our local correctional facilities. The anonymous sources who told Hudson and our reporter their stories need to identify themselves. They need to put a name and face to these charges and thereby force Slay and his executive staff to answer to the public for the horrible conditions in the City jails. Intimidation can only work on someone who allows himself to be intimidated. These corrections officers will deserve the support of the community (beyond coopted politicians) if they show leadership and courage and stand up for what they know is right.