Last month's hostage situation at the St. Louis City Justice Center brought increased scrutiny and a greater public awareness of the reportedly deplorable conditions at the facility. In the weeks since a 73-year-old guard was taken hostage, demonstrations have been held outside the jail and a bill introduced at the Board of Aldermen creating a pathway for members of its civilian oversight board to have access to it.
However, in that same period, little seems to have changed in the jail itself. Attorneys who were in the CJC as recently as last week report that the conditions for detainees are very similar as they were in the chaotic days following the hostage situation in the jail on August 22.
In the days after that incident, defense attorneys complained that they weren't able to meet with their clients in the jail, going so far as to say they suspected the jail had lost track of certain detainees. One attorney, Bob Taaffe, said in August that attorneys with his firm were only able to meet with a client after a day-long delay. When they finally met the man they were defending on a murder charge, he came into the jail's designated meeting area wearing only his boxers.
That was almost a month ago, and last week one public defender had a startlingly similar experience on the fourth floor of the City Justice Center, the same floor which was the site of last month's disturbance.
Matt Mahaffey with the state public defender's office says that one of his attorneys was at the City Justice Center last Wednesday to meet with a client who is facing charges of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action. However, on that day, even after the lawyer waited for more than an hour in the attorney-client meeting area, the jail was not able to bring the detainee to the meeting room.
Two days later, the attorney returned to the city jail and this time was able to meet his client. Notes taken by the attorney, and given to the RFT by Mahaffey, indicate that the detainee was brought into the meeting handcuffed and "wearing only his boxers."
"After the guards closed his door, he reported to me that he was also being constantly confined to his cell and that he has not been able to call or speak with any of his family over the phone unless it was an emergency," the attorney wrote. The detainee said that he and others on the fourth floor are facing the lockdowns as punishment for the hostage situation last month. This detainee is not one the six charged criminally for the incident, Mahaffey says.
Also, alarmingly, the glass in the attorney meeting room had spider-webbed after clearly being stuck by something, and dried blood was embedded into the cracks, the attorney wrote.
Nick Dunne, spokesman for Mayor Tishaura Jones, tells the RFT that laundry service at the jail has returned to normal. But in the cases of the two inmates meeting with their attorneys in their underwear, the detainees did so because "they were found to have items that could present a detriment to the health and safety of detainees and COs." He added that that was all he could say at the moment because the situation is still under investigation.
In addition to the hostage situation, two detainees died while in the jail's custody in August.
Attorney Mark Pedroli is representing the family of one of those deceased individuals, Carlton Bernard. He says he put in a request with the city three weeks ago for Bernard's medical records as well as surveillance video from the jail at the time Bernard passed away.
"I've gotten nothing," Pedroli says.
Mayor Jones has been under increasing pressure from activists to fire the head of the city's Division of Corrections, Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, pressure Jones has thus far resisted.
The mayor has scheduled a briefing on the jail and its operations this Thursday at 11 a.m. A copy of the invitation was obtained by the Riverfront Times. It states, "The Mayor and team will review CJC operations and the status of the Detention Facilities Oversight Board. Any remaining time will be left for questions."
It's unclear who exactly is being briefed. (A mayoral spokesperson did not respond to our request for information by press time.) Media do not appear to be on the guest list, nor are members of the oversight board whom the RFT has spoken to. The invitation stresses "no plus ones."
Dunne tells the RFT the invitees are community members involved in work related to the criminal justice system.
This story has been updated with comments from spokesman Nick Dunne.
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