Last week a handwritten letter was hand-delivered to an editor at The St. Louis American. Scrawled on the envelope: “St. Louis American, help us out, help, please. Suffering in Silence.” A frowning face was drawn, with an exclamation point.
“You’ve got to check this one out,” said the man entrusted with the delivery, Redditt Hudson of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.
Hudson is the author of the study name-checked in the scrawl on the envelope, Suffering in Silence, which relies on a large number of mostly anonymous people who have worked or been incarcerated in one of the two jails run by the City of St. Louis.
They tell a tale of abuse, violence and negligence at the St. Louis Justice Center and the Medium Security Institution, also known as the Workhouse. These claims have been echoed by a large number of letters sent to The American from City jails and supported by a ruling by Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. in favor of a plaintiff who claimed he was brutalized while in a City jail.
Since the ACLU published Hudson’s report, with some assistance from this paper, both Hudson and The American have continued to receive a steady stream of new sources willing to confirm the claims of abuse and negligence in the report or add to them.
This new, undated, handwritten letter – given to Hudson by a woman who identified herself as a current corrections office in the Workhouse, and she had a badge to prove it – claims that a radio producer for Majic 104 was the victim of “a hoax” in providing a positive report about conditions in the Workhouse.
“On April 10, 2009, a tour was conducted by Director of Public Safety Charles Bryson, Commissioner Gene Stubblefield and other individuals,” she claims in the letter. “The tour was a hoax!”
She claims that when Hudson’s scheduled appearance at Majic the previous Sunday (which had been announced in The American) was canceled, “a last minute clean-up of the jail was ordered,” as Hudson’s appearance was rescheduled so Majic could first tour the Workhouse.
“The tour was a complete hoax. Everyone was put in place. Some individuals there on any other night would be at home,” she claims.
“We were not given the opportunity to speak to anyone. We had a memorandum per Stubblefield that if we had any comments to direct them to the City Council!”
Hudson provided her phone number, though the corrections officer wishes to remain anonymous because she fears retaliation if she speaks publicly. Asked about “the City Council,” she said she meant the City counselor, Patti Hageman, who also is acting chief of staff for Mayor Francis G. Slay.
“That’s the only reason we even know her name,” she said of Hageman being named on the memo.
Bryson did not return a call from The American, but Stubblefield – who oversees both the Workhouse and the Justice Center – confirmed that employees at the jail had been issued a memo instructing them not to speak with the media.
“That’s protocol,” Stubblefield told The American.
Stubblefield was asked why he would provide a media tour of the jail when the employees had been given a direct order that they would not be allowed to speak to the media.
“When you want to come in, that is what the protocol is,” Stubblefield repeated.
Asked if the jail was cleaned specifically for the occasion in the week leading up to the visit from Majic, Stubblefield said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, man,” and directed any additional questions to Ed Rhode, spokesman for Mayor Slay.
Rhode was asked to spell out the protocol in question and provide any documentation of it. He also was asked why the City counselor needs to be the go-between between the media and staff at City jail.
Rhode confirmed receipt of the questions but had not responded by deadline.
‘A highly orchestrated experience’
Stubblefield reports directly to Bryson, who reports directly to Slay, who appointed him. Slay appointed Bryson soon after the previous director of Public Safety, a friend of the Slay family and former City cop named Sam Simon, had issued a threat of disciplinary action against then Fire Chief Sherman George.
Simon resigned and immediately took a position at Saint Louis University, and once appointed, Bryson (a former neighborhood liaison for the mayor) immediately stated he would enforce Simon’s threat of discipline against George, which he did.
George was demoted. He then resigned and has since sued Slay and the City for racial discrimination and illegal job action.
Hudson, who also is a former City cop, said he had warned Majic producer Jade Harrell that she had signed up for “a highly orchestrated experience” when she told him she had accepted Bryson’s offer of a jail tour.
Redditt said she told him, “We know how to get at the truth. They can’t hide everything.”
Harrell could not be reached for comment. She has no apparent background in journalism, other than serving as a radio producer and personality. Her MySpace page lists her college degree as “business administration.”
Majic, which is owned by Clear Channel, was called for comment. When a receptionist was asked for the news director, the call was transferred to a man named Mark Anderson. His voice mail message identified him as working in “operations” (business), rather than news. He did not return a call requesting comment.
A follow-up call asking again for the news director was forwarded to the voice mail of a producer of the Smash Morning Show, who did not return the call.
Cordell Johnson is a former correctional officer at the Workhouse who admits to losing his job last year when he tested positive for marijuana in a random urinalysis. On April 12 (Easter Sunday), he listened to the Majic broadcast that included Harrell’s report on her April 10 jail tour. It made him angry enough, he said, to call in twice.
“When the big-time people come in, they always want to sugar-coat it,” Johnson said.
“They give you a head start when people are coming in to spruce up, like it’s not a bad place. Those people are lying. That was all a show.”
Why? Hudson suspects he knows why.
“They are looking to target the community that would be most responsive to our report, the African-American community, to do damage control,” Hudson said.
“That’s standard procedure – yet another attempt to mislead our community about issues that matter to us. But many in the community already know what’s going on.”
The corrections officer who witnessed the “hoax” tour said no one with the Majic crew tried to look beyond appearances to conduct any interviews. The ACLU report is based on multiple interviews with corrections officers an inmates.
She said Harrell and Majic spoke to several inmates and corrections officers who were hand-picked by Bryson and Stubblefield and made no attempt to do any independent investigation or reporting of any kind.
“They never attempted to interview any of us,” she said of Harrell and the Majic crew.
“They just came in and waived and said, ‘How you all doing?’”