ST. LOUIS — Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick is launching an investigation into the troubled St. Louis City Justice Center following allegations of mismanagement, lack of medical care, inadequate nutrition due to nonpayment of food vendors and failure to respond to civilian oversight efforts.
Fitzpatrick said Sen. Steve Roberts called his whistleblower hotline and expressed concerns about the fiscal and operational management of the facility.
In a letter sent to St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones Thursday, Fitzpatrick’s office requested multiple documents and correspondence related to her administration's policies when it comes to the Detention Facilities Oversight Board.
Jones established the civilian oversight board, but its members have said her administration and the Jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah has obstructed their efforts to investigate allegations of mistreatment from inmates.
One member of the civilian board was handcuffed after insisting they be given access to the facility following one of 10 deaths that have happened in the past two years.
Fitzpatrick also sent a letter to the chairman of the civilian oversight board asking for additional documents.
The letters are the start of an investigation. Fitzpatrick said both the mayor’s office and civilian board have until Oct. 24 to respond. Once the auditor’s office has all of the documentation, a determination will be made on whether to proceed with a full audit, he said.
“The allegations that we're in the process of investigating include concerns about the number of inmate deaths, what the causes of those have been, if they were avoidable and concerns about nutrition because the food bills for the for the facility are not being paid timely, and therefore the inmates weren't being fed appropriately,” Fitzpatrick said in an interview with 5 On Your Side Thursday morning.
Jones announced Interim Public Safety Director Charles Coyle has become her permanent choice for the job, and the jail is among the public safety departments that reports to him. Coyle said Thursday inmates are being fed, and he has no knowledge of food vendors not getting paid.
Jones’ spokesman Nick Desideri sent a statement responding to Fitzpatrick’s letter announcing the investigation.
“Our administration commissioned a series of audits on the Corrections Division through 2022 as well as a 2021 critical needs assessment and has made improvements based on said assessment,” Desideri wrote. “City departments have complied with routine audits from the state under previous auditor Nicole Galloway, and they will continue to do so under Auditor Fitzpatrick.”
Other political leaders have expressed concerns about the jail’s operations in recent weeks, including Congresswoman Cori Bush. She wrote a letter to Clemmons-Abdullah on Oct. 3 following a visit she made to the jail in September. It read, in part, “I was deeply troubled by the apparent and continuing issues regarding conditions at the facility and the treatment of detainees and staff.”
Jones has stood by Clemmons-Abdullah, telling 5 On Your Side’s Political Editor Mark Maxwell on Oct. 4 she still has confidence in her leadership.
Before the Jones administration appointed Clemons-Abdullah, inmates let themselves out of their cells multiple times and twice started fires and broke out windows due to faulty locks on the cells.
“This is a difficult situation and she chose to move here with her family to take on making these changes in the CJC,” Jones said. “We have spent almost $20 million fixing the locks, upgrading the meals and upgrading services and educational services in the city jail, but these kinds of changes don’t happen overnight because there have been problems there for decades and you can’t expect it to change under one person over two years and also she’s doing this with a staff of half as many as she needs.
"I don’t see people knocking down our doors to be corrections officers. Being a corrections officer is a hard job. We’re also trying to increase their salaries as well to make it an attractive job for people who are interested in becoming a corrections officer with the City of St. Louis.”
Jones’ office has also issued statements saying members of the oversight board have not completed the necessary training to begin site tours and document reviews.
Fitzpatrick says the training issue sounds like a “roadblock” the mayor’s administration has put up to block the oversight committee’s access.
“There’s nothing in the ordinance that established the civilian oversight board requiring 40 hours of training be completed before the oversight board members can do their work,” he said. “The ordinance does say something about an orientation program being developed by the DFOB in coordination with the Department of Public Safety, or the Division of Corrections.
“But 40 hours is not in the statute, and that's what the mayor was saying in her letter. So we'll look into that we don't really think there's any basis to require 40 hours. From my perspective, an orientation could take place in an afternoon.”
The mayor's Executive Director for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Nicolle Barton says the training is about 24 hours, and includes 11 courses.
She said one member of the civilian oversight committee has completed the training, four are in progress and one has refused all together. There is one opening on the board.
Several investigations are about to make their way to the Detention Facilities Oversight Board, and, without a quorum, it won't be able to vote or move any of them forward.
Coyle said Thursday Detention Facilities Oversight Board members must complete the training as the ordinance requires for their findings to be legally binding.
"I support oversight, but oversight is fragile," he said. "And if we start painting outside the lines, if we're not following the law, we could lose oversight.
"I definitely don't want that to happen on my watch."
Fitzpatrick also said there are some challenges the jail is facing that other industries are experiencing, such as staffing shortages.
“As long as folks are doing what they can to address them, then there's not a whole lot you can say about that, but if they are failing to pay invoices for the food that's resulting in food not being delivered to feed the people in the facility, that is a pretty big mismanagement issue and it's something that definitely needs to be highlighted and talked about,” he said.
Problems at the City Justice Center have been brewing for years, but have heightened in recent weeks.
Less than two months ago, two inmates attacked a guard on Aug. 22, stealing his radio, keys and pepper spray and freed about 40 to 50 inmates from their cells. Clemons-Abdullah called it a “hostage situation,” while an employee who talked to the I-Team called it an “all-out riot.”
Between Friday and Sunday, several guards were injured during three separate attacks involving inmates.
The city’s jail has also come under scrutiny following the deaths of 10 inmates during the past two years, the last three of whom died within 10 weeks of each other.