ST. LOUIS — Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah is slowly becoming the latest focus of controversy in St. Louis city politics.
Her 26-month reign as St. Louis’ jail commissioner has come under fire in recent months, following a spate of inmate deaths, overdoses, attacks on staff and a vocal civilian oversight board that has claimed she is blocking its efforts to ensure the jail is safe.
The concerns have gone all the way to Congress. Rep. Cori Bush wrote a letter demanding more information from Clemons-Abdullah by Nov. 2 about everything from how inmates and staff are treated to how the jail uses pepper spray.
Clemons-Abdullah responded on Nov. 3, directing Bush to existing policies that the I-Team discovered hadn't changed during Clemons-Abdullah's administration and thanking Bush for her concerns.
Mayor Tishaura Jones has taken some political heat for standing by her appointee, Clemons-Abdullah, while Bush – one of her strongest political allies – and Board of Aldermen President Megan Green have openly called for change.
To learn more about the commissioner’s administration, the I-Team reviewed the autopsies of 13 inmates who have died since 2020 – seven of them died on Clemons-Abdullah’s watch.
The I-Team also requested records from the city’s EMS division and police department as well as reviewed the jail’s policies and procedures.
Those records show EMS workers responded to the facility 20 times in the past month – eight of those calls were for overdoses.
Police have been called to the building along Tucker Boulevard more than 2,000 times since Jan. 1, 2020.
In 2020, police responded to the center 527 times. That number jumped to 634 in 2021 and fell considerably to 444 in 2022. Through Sept. 8 of this year, police responded 434 times.
Most of the calls—440—were classified as an investigations while arrests, assaults, sundries and disturbances rounded out the top five reasons police responded to the jail.
And the last time any of the jail’s policies or procedures were updated was in July 2021 – two months before Clemons-Abdullah took over.
The commissioner agreed to an interview about the I-Team’s findings and the criticism she’s faced.
The mayor’s spokesman for public safety, Monte Chambers, ended questioning 22 minutes after the interview began, saying Clemons-Abdullah had a meeting to attend.
Here is how Clemons-Abdullah responded to the I-Team’s findings and questions during that interview.
Q: What do you want to say to the people who believe you are the problem and you need to be removed?
A: When you say that I am the problem, I think we have to address how long have these issues been going on. This is not an issue that's happened in six months, a year, two years, more like a decade, couple of decades. We're doing our best to address them. And when I say we're doing our best work, we put out an RFP for a new contractor. But it's just not about the health care. It's about every aspect of it. We've put in some things in place to ensure that everybody feels safe. We're making sure we put in a $1 million grant. And I say I, because I wrote it and we were granted it by the state and we did matching funds so we can kind of upgrade the building throughout. A lot of people don't know. But since it is a facility, a correctional facility, a lot of things are not known to the public. And it should be some things that are not known because we need to enhance the facility. As far as our roofing project, as far as our plumbing system, things like that that a lot of people won't get to see. But when it's all said and done, I've been here a little over couple of years and it's proven to be worthy.
Q: What is being done to address the medical concerns of the detainees?
A: What we're doing is we're working through to figure out where the weaknesses lie as far as health care. But we have to realize, too, we're not dealing with people that are coming from an environment that has everything and this is not a last couple of years issue. This is an ongoing continual issue, not just in St. Louis City, but every city. We have these barriers or things that problems that exist, drug problems and things like that. So we're coming up with a different way. We're talking about how we're going to address when people come inside, how we're going to address their health concerns. Better to be able to identify some things, some things you're not going to be able to identify until it happens. You know, aneurysm is not something that you find out about when you do a just a regular screening. This is something that it takes time. Severe headaches or whatever the case may be. From what I read, I'm not a physician or anything like that, but I think us putting in the money to invest, with the administration’s support to say, ‘Let's get this new health care, let's hone in on that and let's make it a priority,’ I think I know that us doing that will help get us a better health care contract or better health care for the inmates that come in or be able to identify what they really need.
Q: What are you doing to address the drugs that are getting in here?
A: We've did a couple of things. I can't put it out. I won't put it out. I won't put it out for public consumption because why? The detainees may not be watching the news, but other relatives are and that information gets to them. So I don't want them to be able to circumvent that system because it seems as though that has been the issue in the past. When we had the hostage situation, we found out some things. So that's the reason why I don't put things out for public consumption. We had an arrest last year. No one wants to talk about that, but we did make an arrest of an officer introducing contraband. Why? Because of our diligence to move forward and to be able to just identify where our problem areas are and put some things in place.
Q: Do you do you feel like there have been more overdoses lately? Does it seem to be increasing right now?
A: I can't say that there are overdoses. I can't say that there have been increases. But what I can tell you is, that from the looks of it in the community, they've had an increase in influx of overdoses in the community. I was talking to our health care provider and they were saying that our emergency rooms in the community have been overcrowded or received a lot of overdoses. I wasn't aware. I can't say that it's any different from anything previously because I really don't have those numbers. I don't know those numbers because it's a process. And when I say it's a process, it's a process to find out is it really an overdose? And when those processes don’t net that, you can't call it that. You can't call it an overdose.
Q: So then how do you figure out if overdoses are the problem, and that's what we need to address?
A: When the process is done, which is an investigation, right, it leads us to a when certain things net in the positive, then we go on to go down that road to verify. When that's not there, then we have to go by the baseline of a detainee. When I say their health care baseline that they come in here, did they have this? Or that? We have to look at every aspect. It's not just one aspect of things. And that's what I think a lot of people, well, it's not that I think, a lot of people don't realize what goes into a process to figure out, is it really a overdose? And when those things don't net that information, we can't we can't go down a road and verify that it is because at the end of the day, we have to look at a coroner's report to see did they call it overdose. We can't really call it overdose. We have to wait for them to they do their exam and then go from go from there.
Q: Are you still short-staffed and by how much?
A: I won't say how much, but I will tell you this. Since I came here, we've been low staffing. It's not just us, it's everyone. And when I say everyone, I've talked to other municipalities and they've said the same thing. They're having issues with recruiting people. Hence we've got an increase in pay for our staff, increase in pay for those that are coming in with a retention incentive. It's always going to be an issue because in a correctional setting, even in the federal system, we were getting people to come into the system that have like or similar backgrounds to the people you house. It's hard to find sometimes, but I think we're working diligently. We have a good rapport with Department of Personnel. They're working diligently to get us those names and get some people in here, and it's going in the right direction.
Q: So you were 30 to 50 officers down when you first came, and we're at now?
A: We're close.
Q: The same?
A: Yes. Well, I suppose it's a little bit more than that, but I won't give you an exact number.
Q: Why?
A: Safety and security.
Q: Do the staffing concerns also extend to the medical staff as well? Are there staffing challenges with your medical care as well?
A: There may be, but I think since they handle their own their own staffing, they recruit people, they offer incentives. I think they've had some challenges, but not as many as we've had.
Q: Since 2020, there have been over 2,000 calls for service to this facility. Is that acceptable to you?
A: I'm not going to say it's acceptable. It may be necessary. And I say that because we don't know what's really going on with people. You get people from the outside that have drug histories that are not willing to advise you of that. And when issues occur that are abnormal, I would rather be safe than sorry. So I don't I encourage it, when we don't have an oncologist, when we don't have a cardiologist, because I would rather allow them to go to the community, to a hospital to get to ensure everything's okay
Q: Can you say that it is safe in here for inmates and staff?
A: Nothing's ever 100% because you don't know people, but I can say when I'm aware of something, I address it.
Q: Bottom line, what is being done to prevent these deaths?
A: Department of Health is being more interactive with what's going on to ensure we get a good provider in here to replace YesCare. We've increased our rounds with the upper level management staff, increasing roles to kind of get a pulse of the inmate population to see what's going on, how it's being done. If there's anything we can improve and if there's anything we can improve, when we can improve it, how we can improve it…Detainees. I encourage them to talk to us. I just want them to talk to us in a manner which we can understand. And I say understand because, in any situation, people get uptight and when they get uptight, their voices raise, they become animated. We just want them to communicate effectively…Safety is always first for our detainees, for staff, for everybody.
Q: The mayor ran on a platform of transparency and you promised to improve living conditions here for inmates. We've heard from loved ones of inmates. We've heard from inmates. We've heard from attorneys that basic industry standards like rec time, access to showers, laundry, that sort of thing are not even meeting industry standards. What are you doing to improve those living conditions, those basic living conditions?
A: What we're doing is we're engaging with our staff. We're utilizing what we have. People are going to always say, ‘This is not right. They don't do this or that.’ But this is this is the thing, the staffing issue does play a role with certain things. But we're doing the feeding. We're doing the laundry. When people say this is not happening, can you show me a facility where everything's perfect, please? Because I would love to see how they're running it. And that's what I think no one's really looking at. It's a jail. It's a pretrial facility and nothing's going to be perfect. But what we try to do is we try to implement things, implement procedures to make it a little bit more industry standard. When you say is not meeting industry standards, what are they truly saying? Because nobody can be catered to one on one. And when it comes to being in a correctional facility, it's just not one of those things that everything is going to be perfect.
Q: What is being done to address the safety of staff following the hostage situation?
A: We're teaching them, going back to the basics. When I say go back to the basics, we're making sure that we are doing what it takes to, when someone is supposed to be handcuffed, are they handcuffed? Are they leg-ironed? Are they getting what they deserve? Are we talking to them? Or are we seeing what they need, what they want? Because what they need and what they want is two different things. Because people always say safety and security for the inmates, but like I was telling you and you just asked, what about the staff? We're doing a lot. The staff, they appreciate it. And we're doing a lot to ensure their safety. At the end of the day, we have to value people. And the detainees, sometimes fulfilling some of their wants. It may not be a need, but we give them sometimes what they want, like the holidays are coming up. We did it last year and nobody talks about it, but we did holiday bags for the detainees, not because we have to, but because we want people to say, ‘Just because you're incarcerated, we want to let you be as human as possible.’ And so those are some of the things we did last year, and we're going to incorporate it this year.
Q: We also did a review of your policies, and there have been almost no changes since you came in to those policies. Are you planning to update or change any of them at all?
A: We are looking at those. And I say that because you look at the policies, it wouldn't necessarily the policies that's the problem. It's the manner in which we're doing the adhering to the policy. If you really look at it in its totality, what we're doing versus what the policy says, are we meeting or exceeding that? If we're not, why? What is it? What is it that we need to adjust? So I didn't intentionally change anything. We're getting ready to update the inmate handbook and do some changes to some policies. It's just it's a procedure. It's a process. And when I say it's a process, it's just looking at things from the time I've been here to right now and where we are. So will there be some changes? Probably forthcoming, Yes.
At this point in the interview, Public Safety spokesman Monte Chambers informed the I-Team it would have one last question.
Clemons-Abdullah answered it much like she answered the first question – by referencing the past.
Q: Congresswoman Cori Bush has been very vocal in her concerns about this facility and your leadership. What do you want to say so that the public knows where you stand when you when they hear her criticisms?
A: I'll say you don't just look at the last two years. Look at the last 20. And you can break it down however you want. Are these some issues that are you bringing up now? Have they been existing? And if they have, what was done previously to address them?
Here is a list of the autopsy reports the I-Team reviewed and those that are still pending:
Name: Juwon Carter
Age: 44
Date of death: Sept. 30, 2023
Autopsy results still pending
Name: Terrance Smith
Age: 55
Date of death: Aug. 31, 2023
Autopsy results still pending
Name: Calton Bernard
Age: 32
Date of death: Aug. 20, 2023
Cause of death: Ketoacidosis due to diabetes mellitus
Manner of death: Natural
Toxicology: presence of acetone, glucose, potassium, sodium, urea nitrogen, chloride, creatinine
Name: Ashley Davis
Age: 37
Date of death: Sept. 9, 2022
Cause of death: Immediate cause, Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy, due to ventricular fibrillation, myocardial infarction in the setting of chronic methamphetamine abuse
Final manner of death: Accident
No toxicology results
Name: Courtney McNeal
Age: 41
Date of death: Sept. 6, 2022
Cause of death: Complications from perforated gastric ulcer
Manner of death: Natural
Toxicology: Fentanyl, cocaine, naloxone, THC, allergy medication
Name: Donald Henry
Age: 48
Date of death: Sept. 4, 2022
Cause of death: Dilated cardiomyopathy of undetermined etiology, hypertensive cardiovascular disease was another significant condition
Manner of death: Natural
Toxicology: Naloxone
Name: Dennelle Johnson
Age: 33
Date of death: Aug. 10, 2022
Cause of death: Acute Fentanyl and codeine toxicity
Manner of death: Accident
Toxicology: Fentanyl, acetaminophen, codeine, morphine, naloxone
Name: Augustus Lajuan Collier
Age: 29
Date of death: July 8, 2022
Cause of death: Hanging
Manner of death: Suicide
Toxicology: no significant findings
Name: Robert Miller
Age: 50
Date of Death: April 28, 2022
Cause of Death: Lower Extremity Deep Vein Thromboses, Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease
Manner of death: Natural
Toxicology results: Antipsychotics, antidepressants confirmed present
Name: Quincy Baker
Age: 39
Date of Death: September 5, 2021
Cause of Death: Hanging
Final manner of death: Suicide
Toxicology results: Diphenhydramine, Lorazepam, Naloxone
Name: Oleg Shegeda
Age: 63
Date of death: Nov. 15, 2020
Cause of death: Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma
Manner of death: Natural
Toxicology: Acetaminophen, codeine, morphine, oxycodone, morphine
Name: Kevin Cavins
Age: 33
Date of death: Nov. 8, 2020
Cause of death: Acute Fentanyl intoxication
Manner of death: Accident
Toxicology: Morphine, Fentanyl, amphetamine, acetaminophen, pseudoephedrine, tramadol
Name: Michael Rasch
Age: 56
Date of death: Oct. 21. 2020
Cause of death: Anoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy due to hanging
Manner of death: Suicide
Toxicology: None available
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