City jail officials are turning up the dial on intimidation within the ranks of corrections officers and attempting to destroy evidence, human rights officials say, as more allegations of inmate abuse, sexual assault and neglect surface within the St. Louis city jails.
“The City can expect any number of lawsuits to be brought against it in the coming months by people whose attorneys have contacted us,” said Redditt Hudson, program associate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.
Hudson, who is calling for federal investigation of the City jails, made a presentation to the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee on Wednesday along with ACLU-EM program director John Chasnoff.
The ACLU-EM recently released Hudson’s scathing report on the City jails that cited abuses, neglect, sexual misconduct and squalor in the St. Louis Justice Center and the Medium Security Institute, or Workhouse. The report is titled “Suffering in Silence: Human Rights Abuses in St. Louis Correctional Centers.”
“The report has some alarming allegations in it, and that necessitated that this Board of Alderman and this committee conduct our review,” said Alderman Terry Kennedy.
The committee, which is now chaired by Alderwoman Phyllis Young, will meet with public safety officials next week to hear their response to the ACLU-EM’s allegations. Charles Bryson, director of the Department of Public Safety, attended the entire meeting Wednesday but said he would not comment until the meeting next week.
Hudson said eight more inmates and eight more correction officers have recently contacted his office with more troubling allegations of misconduct since his reported was issued.
“Correction officers and inmates have presented new information about rights violations and growing evidence of continued efforts to cover things up inside the St. Louis City Justice Center and the Medium Security Institute,” Redditt said.
A corrections officer told Hudson that one corrections officer sexually assaulted an inmate and is “off the job” while another corrections officer has repeatedly sexually assaulted an inmate and is still working. Officers working with the ACLU-EM attained letters from the inmate that state she also had sex with other corrections officers, Hudson said. Sex between an inmate and corrections officer is a violation of policy, Redditt said.
Alderman Charles “Quincy” Troupe said it is more than a violation of policy.
“I have a real problem when the city, state or federal government looks at sex between inmates and employees as consensual. It is rape,” Troupe said. “It is nothing short of rape, and that’s how we need to look at it and treat it.”
Several corrections officers told Hudson that jail officials recently seized large volumes of reports and files. Only Commissioner Gene Stubblefields’s personal assistant was allegedly allowed access to the files. She took some files to her personal car, according to the informant.
“The reports and files were taken and moved in such volume that two-wheelers were used to move them,” Hudson said.
In another incident, a training class allegedly was stopped so that participants could view the corrections officers’ files for three hours and remove anything that could be damaging.
“And the CO’s (corrections officers) reporting this now want answers as to why this is being done and how and who ordered it,” Hudson said. “A number of CO’s report that it’s part of a cover up, plain and simple.”
Despite officials’ efforts, Hudson said, some corrections officers are still providing information even though they often are intimidated or transferred as punishment for providing information to the ACLU-EM.
“They say it’s hot and heavy in there,” Hudson said of his informants. “They say, ‘When we find out who did this, they are fired. They are out of here.’”
Hudson said the alleged efforts of City officials to silence his informants is not working.
“It has become very clear to us that in any setting, intimidation will work on some people,” he said. “For others, though, an attempt to intimidate them directly or indirectly is a provocation.”
