A WEE BIT OF A DISTURBANCE IN ST. LOUIS GRAYBAR HOTEL

Inmates smash windows, set fire to downtown St. Louis jail

 

By Dana Rieck 

 

The St. Louis American

February 6, 2021 

Oe-hundred-and-seventeen inmates on Saturday took over the majority of the St. Louis City Justice Center’s fourth floor, smashing windows and setting fires in what is now the third inmate protest in the last six weeks at the jail.

The inmates could be seen Saturday morning standing in front of broken windows on the fourth floor of the jail in downtown St. Louis, throwing objects onto the street and sidewalk while holding signs reading including phrases such as “FREE 57,” “PDI HotHead” and “What about Anthony Smith.”

 

 

The protest began around 2:30 a.m., Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards said in a media briefing. An inmate was upset, he said, and “got into a scuffle” with a correctional officer who was then jumped by other inmates.

“The detainees have the ability to jimmy their locks and the locks don’t necessarily lock, even though our automated panel system would indicate that the cells are locked, they are, in fact, not locked,” Edwards said. “And so other detainees were able to get out of their cells and into the unit.” 

Edwards said the unit that houses those cells is also locked and while the inmates were unable to unlock the unit itself, they were able to unlock other cells. He said authorities were able to get the corrections officer out of the unit. He was taken to the hospital and is said to be doing well. 

Each floor of the jail houses four units each and on average there were 884 inmates held in the facility Saturday.

Edwards noted the inmates did not hold a hostage or make demands during the protest.

“These were just very angry, despondent, very violent people that we house at the Justice Center,” Edwards said. 

Edwards said that the inmates at this jail are in custody for more serious charges — such as assault and murder — and that no low-level or misdemeanor offenders are held at the City Justice Center.

Edwards said authorities did not meet resistance when they entered the fourth floor, and each inmate complied with instructions to get on the floor and exit one-by-one. 

“There was no resistance when we went in,” he said, confirming no inmates were injured. 

He said he hopes the inmates are charged for their offenses during the uprising. Edwards added that police know exactly who did what and Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner has been contacted.

Edwards said his staff moved 55 inmates to the jail’s segregation unit, where they have better control and a maximum security locking system. In addition, he moved 65 “of some of the most violent offenders” to the Workhouse, which he said is a more secure facility than the City Justice Center. 

“This is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable, irrespective of what circumstance you are in, this was not an attempt to break out of jail, this was certainly not a situation involving COVID,” Edwards said. “We have zero COVID cases at CJC. So this was a bunch of folk that were defiant, this was a bunch of people who decided that they were going to engage in criminal mayhem and that’s exactly what they did. And they should be held accountable for what they did.” 

On Saturday morning, Kayla Reed, executive director of Action St. Louis, posted on Facebook about the protest.

“Now more than ever before, there are people in our jails who have no bond and are being forced to sit until a verdict is reached. If the charges are dropped, or they are found not guilty, those days they sat in jails are just lost to the system,” she wrote. “This is across charges. There are folks who have misdemeanors and felonies who are sitting downtown [and] at the workhouse with NO BOND as a direct result of [ArchCity Defenders] suing for unconstitutional bail practices.”

The other 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 for those being held there against COVID-19.

Following each protest, groups of inmates were transferred to the St. Louis Medium Security Institution — the Workhouse — which had been slated to be closed Dec. 31. Fifty-six people were transferred from the Justice Center to the Workhouse on Dec. 29, followed by 45 on Jan. 1.

The Workhouse remains fully operational and the Board of Aldermen on Jan. 29 voted 16-11 to pass a bill that puts a question about closing the Workhouse on the April ballot.

“The city doubled down on keeping people in cages. The city doubled down during a pandemic where jails are often hotspots for covid,” Reed wrote in her post. “Complaints coming from inside about the lack of covid protocol and the conditions. Folks inside have staged several protests and have been met with force and violence. Then today happened.”