St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ administration is seeking nine people to serve on the city’s inaugural Detention Facilities Oversight Board (DFOB).
“I am proud of our work together with stakeholders to create this board to help ensure claims of injustice from within our detention facilities are taken seriously.” —Mayor Tishaura Jones
The Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance Dec. 3 establishing the DFOB, which will review complaints of corrections personnel misconduct and detention incidents, direct investigations to the commissioner and submit recommendations regarding policy and procedures.
Applications are open to city residents now through Feb. 14 and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
The oversight board was one of 13 urgent recommendations made by a task force assembled after several uprisings at the City Justice Center last year.
The recommendations included things such as increasing dayroom recreation, implementing tablets for virtual visitation, upgrading the electronic security system and constructing maximum security gates and auditing the length of stay of current detainees. But creating a civilian oversight board for the corrections department was the task force’s highest priority issue, according to the task force’s chairman, Rev. Darryl Gray.
“Detainees in city facilities must be treated with respect,” Jones said in a prepared statement. “After receiving recommendations from corrections task force representatives and visiting the facilities covered under this bill, I am proud of our work together with stakeholders to create this board to help ensure claims of injustice from within our detention facilities are taken seriously.”
Appointment to the DFOB requires nomination by either the mayor or chairman of public safety, as well as confirmation by the Board of Aldermen.
The DFOB’s members are expected to be fair and objective; to act without bias or favor for complainants, detainees or employees; and make decisions based only upon the facts and the evidence before them.
“Many thanks to Mayor Jones and Public Safety Committee Chairperson, Alderman Joe Vacarro, for accepting the recommendation from the Corrections Task Force in creating the Detention Facility Oversight Board,” Darryl Gray wrote on Facebook in response to the application period opening.
In 2021, the City Justice Center experienced at least six detainee uprisings — all blamed on faulty locks in the facility. The most recent uprisings were two in July that resulted in the transfer of about 140 detainees to an annex at the now-closed Workhouse.
The first two protests occurred just before and on New Year’s Day. Each time, the inmates refused to return to their cells in protest of inadequate protections against COVID-19 for those being held there.
Then, in early February, inmates took over the north side of the fourth floor of the jail, breaking the windows and throwing debris down onto the sidewalk and street. The fourth protest happened on Easter Sunday and mirrored February’s uprising but on the third floor.
In addition to those, the jail faced two high-profile lawsuits. The first one, filed in March, alleged a 40-year-old City Justice Center inmate with paraplegia had not been provided a wheel-chair accessible shower in 160 days.
The second one in June outlined a variety of narratives of inmates who all complained of excessive and abusive use of pepper spray by corrections officers. An investigation by The St. Louis American revealed in March 2021 the city put in one order for as much pepper spray as they had purchased in the previous six years combined, a total of $17,379.
Jones announced in August that an associate warden in Arkansas was chosen to take over as St. Louis’ new corrections commissioner.
Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah began work Sept. 13 and listed several issues she’s focused on improving such as the care and custody of people in the jails, closing the Workhouse (the Medium Security Institution), providing restorative justice, ensuring detainees have access to a quick judicial process and providing corrections officers an outlet to feel valued and appreciated.
Those who are unable to apply for the DFOV online at www.stlouis-mo.gov can submit a completed form by email at knoxm@stlouis-mo.gov or by mail ATTN: Michelle Knox at 1200 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103.
