City officials approved a $1.5 million budget transfer Feb. 17 to repair the broken locks at the St. Louis City Justice Center – an issue largely blamed for the magnitude of the inmate uprising in February.
The Board of Estimate and Apportionment has three members – Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green. They voted unanimously to transfer $1.5 million to repair the locks, according to Krewson’s spokesperson Jacob Long. Local reports indicate the funds came from salary budgets for vacant positions.
The city contracted local company Pauly Jail Building Company, Inc. through an emergency work authorization process and the work on the fourth floor of the CJC began Monday, Long said.
He added the work is expected to take 10 to 12 weeks.
Pauly Jail Building Company’s website claims it is the oldest correctional facilities contractor, having operated since 1856. Headquartered in Noblesville, Indiana, the company lists several projects under construction in Indiana, one in Michigan and another in North Dakota.
The issue of the locks was put on blast directly following the uprising, in which 117 inmates took over the majority of the CJC’s fourth floor for several hours, smashing windows and setting fires in what was the third inmate protest within six weeks at the jail.
Once the situation was under control, Public Safety Director Jimmy Edwards spoke publicly about a rather peculiar issue the jail is dealing with.
“The detainees have the ability to jimmy their locks and the locks don’t necessarily lock, even though our automated panel system would indicate that the cells are locked, they are, in fact, not locked,” Edwards said at the time. “And so other detainees were able to get out of their cells and into the unit.”
In the days following the uprising, Commissioner of Corrections Dale Glass reiterated that point, saying there had been multiple occasions prior to the Feb. 6 uprising when an inmate tampered with a cell lock.
“So we began searching, prior to COVID, and we even reached out to various companies … it was part of our submission for budget and then these events happened,” Glass said at the time. “As I indicated, we had already engaged some people to help us find the solution to this issue.”
During the Board of Estimate and Apportionment’s monthly meeting Feb. 17, Krewson provided a formal updated on the status of closing the Workhouse (less commonly known as the Medium Security Institution), which is something she does every month.
She said that some inmates were moved to the Workhouse from the CJC following the uprising Feb. 6 and noted three CJC units are not occupiable, because they are in need of renovations and improvements as a result of the inmates’ demonstration.
“So, until that work is done, we are certainly happy that we had MSI available,” Krewson said. “Which by the way, we’ve made a lot of improvements to MSI in the last three or four years totaling around $8 million. And it just so happens that the last pod at MSI was completed just a week before this latest disturbance, so we were very happy we had that capacity available.”
The Board of Aldermen passed Board Bill 92 unanimously on July 17, 2020, which was based on a plan by the Close the Workhouse Campaign. The bill directed the commissioner of Corrections to begin the process of closing the Workhouse by presenting a plan with a closure date set for no later than Dec. 31, 2020.
Even so, it remains operational with no close date in sight.
“So, I do think that everybody is still on track to figure out what is the safest way and the most humane way to hold the detainees that are sent to the city by the judges – we don’t have anything to say about who we detain, those decisions are made by the judges, and then it is up to the executive branch and department heads to determine the best way to do that,” Krewson said. “So right now, that’s where we stand.”
