Multiple sources tell the RFT that conditions at the St. Louis City jail, long described as "hellish," have deteriorated further in the 48 hours since five inmates took a guard hostage for several hours Tuesday morning.
The hostage situation was resolved about two and a half hours after it began, when a SWAT team showed up at the jail and freed the 73-year-old hostage using "less than lethal force." The guard's daughter told KSDK that her father was a 23-year veteran of the institution and suffered a concussion as well as a busted lip in the ordeal.
The hostage takers are expected to be criminally charged in the coming days.
But since Tuesday, Matt Mahaffey of the state public defender's office says that at least some of the 668 detainees in the jail are facing a situation in which "food has been limited or non-existent." Attorneys with the public defender's office are in the jail frequently, and since Tuesday they have spoken to one detainee who has gone without a meal since the incident and another who hasn't eaten in over 24 hours.
"I’m not being housed there. So my perspective is informed by those that are," Mahaffey says.
What he's heard from his office's clients is backed up by others familiar with the inner workings of the jail. Jail oversight board member Mike Milton tells the RFT that in addition to the lack of food service, he's also heard that detainees are being denied showers and spend 23 hours a day locked down.
A source familiar with jail operations tells the RFT that yesterday saw two detainees attempt suicide in the wake of food service being halted.
Jail observers say change is needed.
On Sunday, 32-year-old jail detainee Carlton Bernard was taken from the jail to a hospital, where he died. The cause of his death is unknown.
"I believe seven people have died in CJC custody over the course of 2022 and 2023. ArchCity [Defenders] has reported countless accounts of abuse and neglect. Transparency is nonexistent," Mahaffey says. "The oversight board is not allowed to do their work. Use of force is rampant."
According to KSDK, the guard had let two detainees out of their cells to help him distribute breakfast when they rushed him, took him to a shower, cuffed his hands and legs and stole his mace.
Video of the incident appears to show the guard without any other staff members in the area when he was attacked.
Asked about the role staffing shortages may have played in the incident, Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah told media on Tuesday afternoon that "due to security issues" she did now want to address staffing levels at the time of the incident. She also said that staffing was adequate.
Yesterday evening the RFT reached out to the city Department of Public Safety asking about the food service stoppage and suicide attempts in the jail. We will update the story when we hear back.
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