ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Ten inmates have died at the St. Louis City Justice Center since 2020, prompting loud cries for transparency and accountability.
Members of the Detention Facilities Oversight Board (DFOB), the watchdogs charged with monitoring abuse at the city jail, feel oversight is long overdue.
"Oversight is necessary. Over the last few months, we've seen constant situations happening at the jail," Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge (D-St. Louis) said. "Oversight members feel like they're getting stonewalled."
Soon, some long-awaited changes could finally be coming in a 212-page proposal that sits on Mayor Tishaura Jones' desk, though they place more scrutiny on the discretion of the city's top government lawyer.
On Friday, the Board of Aldermen passed Board Bill 93 to allow corrections officers to file anonymous complaints to the members of the DFOB.
An anonymous complaint, however, can only help the Detention Facilities Oversight Board corroborate a separate complaint to build their case; it can't be their whole case in itself.
Still, that opens up a bit of a wider hose for complaints to trickle in to the panel of jail monitors.
"Even with whistleblower boards and whistleblower protections that we have at the City of St Louis, retaliation is real," Aldridge said.
Those complaints can now flow more freely to the Detention Facilities Oversight Board; but, until now, its members and its chairman felt stymied by City Counselor Sheena Hamilton.
"She was definitely jamming us up," DFOB Chairman Darryl Gray said.
Hamilton's office represented cases before the DFOB, and represented any corrections officers who might face allegations of abuse or misconduct.
Under the new measure, the complaint procedures can shift slightly if Hamilton signs off on it.
"We can secure our own lawyer when we have a situation where there's a conflict of interest with the city attorney," Gray said.
However, Hamilton still possesses a kill switch to shut down the outside lawyer if she decides against it. She also has the unique power to share information between the two sides in rare instances if she chooses.
"Will this board ever be independent? No, it's not going to happen," Gray said. "It's not going to happen as long as this administration and the city attorney is concerned more about litigation than constitutional rights."
The new bill creates:
- An internal special counsel who reports directly to City Counselor Sheena Hamilton.
- A firewall between that lawyer and any other city lawyers managing police officers or corrections officers (with an exception the City Counselor can override in limited circumstances).
- One external special counsel who may advise the DFOB at the "discretion of the City Counselor."
- A new pathway for corrections officers to file anonymous complaints against other staff.
Board Bill 93 instructions for City Counselor Sheena Hamilton:
- If she denies DFOB an outside lawyer, she has to write a letter and explain why.
- If she grants DFOB an outside lawyer, she gets to pick the list of lawyers the board can then choose from.
Nick Dunne, a City Hall spokesman said, "Mayor Jones remains committed to civilian oversight of corrections, and plans to sign this legislation."
So far, Jones has shielded the jail director, Jennifer Clemmons-Abdullah, from calls for her removal, resulting in eroded support from advocates like the influential reverend Darryl Gray.
"Fire the current commissioner of Corrections," Gray said when asked what it would take for the mayor to restore his faith in her. "People have died under her watch. Employees have left at a time when it's hard to get employees."
"According to these employees, they're running from bad management," he said. "They're running from an inflated ego. They're running from the director. They're running from a person who wants to dictate rather than building teams."
Those comments came just hours after Clemmons-Abdullah sat down with our I-Team's Christine Byers to answer tough questions about the rough conditions inside the city jail. That interview airs on Monday night at 10 p.m. on 5 On Your Side.