Another member of the civilian board tasked with overseeing jail operations has resigned, the second in two days.
Board member Mike Milton released a resignation letter this afternoon in a letter addressed to Detention Facility Oversight Board Chair Darryl Gray and Ruby Bonner, the deputy commissioner of the Division of Civilian Oversight. Milton called the board he was resigning from "idle and ineffective."
Milton's letter comes one day after the oversight board’s vice chair, Janis Mensah, also resigned with a blistering letter.
Milton says in his letter that he joined the board because he wanted to make jails safer for the people locked up inside them. Milton was nominated to be on the board by Mayor Tishaura Jones in 2021.
"Mayor Jones made a number of progressive campaign promises of transparency, accountability and reimagining public safety," he writes. “I expected a sincere effort to disrupt the state violence in our city, but instead we’ve faced constant obstruction."
He writes that after "18 months of obstruction from the administration and the jail commissioner," he's come to believe that the mayor's office "does not want to take claims of injustice seriously." He goes on to say that he's been blocked from receiving detainee complaints and other data required to do the job he was purportedly appointed to do.
On the heels of Mensah's resignation yesterday, the Board of Aldermen Public Safety Committee held a hearing about the jail, which included testimony from Director of Public Safety Charles Coyle.
Coyle told the aldermen that his department is trying to ameliorate the low staffing at the jail, which is seen by many as the main cause behind the facility's many woes. He said that the City Justice Center is offering a $3,500 hiring incentive for new employees and that corrections officer pay has been raised to a starting salary of $46,000 a year.
Coyle said the jail is also exploring hiring college students as part-time corrections officers, and that he has been involved with talks with administrators from Harris-Stowe State University. He also mentioned recruiting criminology and criminal justice majors from universities like St. Louis University. The jail also employs a recruiter to connect the jail to potential future potential employees.
Both Mensah and Milton have expressed frustration with being unable to access the jail or complaints or complaints from staff or detainees. Mensah’s letter reads in full, “Warden Jennifer Clemons-Abudllah should be fired. The City Justice Center should be closed. Mayor Tishaura Jones should be ashamed. I resign."
Milton’s letter is longer. He writes, “It’s clear to me now, the board was never designed to change the systemic violence in the jail, it was designed to give the illusion of progress whiel maintaining the status quo.”
You can read Milton's full resignation letter below.
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