Several St. Louis officials held a media briefing Monday afternoon regarding the uprising at the City Justice Center this weekend, in what seemed to be an attempt to place primary blame for the issues surrounding the jail on the courts.
“The city’s job is to detain those people in as safe and secure a way as possible,” St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said.
Krewson announced that Michael Wolff, former Missouri Supreme Court judge and chief justice, will head a small task force to investigate the claims made by the inmates.
“I understand that the public and maybe even some of the media might not believe what we tell you, so let’s have a very well-respected, quick-moving task force to confirm that or not,” said Krewson. “I think that’s the reason we need to do this, otherwise detainees say one thing and the jail and corrections say another thing.”
The mayor said she hopes to have the task force hold its first meeting within a week. The other members of the task force include: Adolphus Pruitt, president of the City of St. Louis NAACP; Jamilah Nasheed, retired Missouri state senator, 5th District; Alderman Joe Vaccaro, chair, Board of Aldermen Public Safety Committee; Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, vice chair, Board of Alderman Public Safety Committee; Dr. Pamela Walker, Public Health Executive; Rev. Charles Norris, pastor, St. James AME Church; Brad Hompe, MPA, Criminal Justice Systems and Jail Operations consultant.
Krewson has asked to receive an initial assessment of the task force’s findings in the next few weeks.
“We believe we run a good operation here and [St. Louis Corrections Commissioner] Dale [Glass] is an extremely competent and experienced operator here,” she said. “… but we will let the task force really make that determination.”
Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards also spoke, pointing to the courts’ role in determining who is held in custody.
“I am very empathetic to our detainees, their families and friends for the slow disposition of their cases,” Edwards said.
Edwards said about 600 cases, including those where individuals are not held in custody, have been completed through plea agreements since the beginning of the pandemic in March. No jury trials have been held within that time frame.
“This is problematic,” Edwards said. “The primary job of the corrections division is to house people accused of crimes at the direction of judges. The corrections division has no authority to admit people to jail or any authority to release people from. Those decisions are the decisions exclusively invested in judges.”
When asked about critics, who said Edwards intentionally used polarizing language Saturday when describing the inmates involved in the latest uprising, he said he isn’t trying to be disrespectful, just stating the facts.
“There is no assumption or presumption, we are not trying to vilify or embarrass anyone,” he said. “You may have heard me say over and over that I expect for people here to be respectful of people detained, I expect for people to be treated humanely.”
“But if you’re charged with homicide, or you’re charged with assault on a police officer, that’s how you are described,” he added.
Jail conditions
Commissioner of Corrections Glass said there have been multiple occasions in the past when an inmate tampers 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. “As I indicated, we had already engaged some people to help us find the solution to this issue.”
Glass also described the jail’s COVID-19 protocols, saying there is an intake process to screen individuals coming into the facility and personal protective equipment kits are handed out every other week.
He noted the jail didn’t confirm its first case of COVID-19 until June, and it was back to zero in October. Following that, Glass said there was a surge in December before another decline.
He also responded to some other public criticism, including that inmates are fed dietician-approved meals and have access to vending machines, and that the heating system is set at 72 degrees.
“Those are the kinds of things being said that are not true,” Glass said.
Glass said he is almost done with his review of the first two protests, which occurred on Dec. 29 and Jan. 1. He said that evaluation will be shared with Edwards.
“They’ll see that we handled that situation very appropriately and competently,” he said. “The one thing I would share is that I heard complaints about their toilets flooded or whatever, they purposely did that and then they tell loved ones that ‘we’re being beat.’”