The chair of St. Louis’ jail oversight board was forcibly removed from the City Justice Center last night after the leaders of the facility refused to share any information about the most recent death there.
Janis Mensah says that when board members first heard of the detainee's death, the second in two weeks, they went to the jail to try to learn more. Mensah chairs the city's Detention Facility Oversight Board, a group of civilians tasked to investigate problems at the jail.
"I didn't go there planning to stay," says Mensah. "I just asked them a few questions and they ignored me."
Mensah then sat in the lobby. Around 9 p.m., jail staffers called the police.
"They pulled me out of the bench, pretty forcefully," says Mensah. "They said 'stop resisting,' but I wasn't moving at all."
Mensah says they suffered scrapes and scratches and had their sweatshirt ripped.
Officers wrote Mensah a citation for trespassing and resisting arrest and then took Mensah to the hospital. Mensah was released from there.
This morning, Mensah says their face still hurts from being thrown to the ground in the jail lobby.
"They never read me my rights then or at any point in the night. I can't tell if I was arrested or caught and released or what even happened," Mensah says.
Mensah’s removal comes amid growing tensions between the jail oversight board and Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, the city's head of corrections. The board has long called for her removal.
Increasingly, the oversight board and other jail reformers have focused their ire on Mayor Tishaura Jones, who appointed Clemons-Abdullah two years ago.
"This is definitely an escalation," oversight board member Mike Milton tells the RFT about the events of last night. "The mayor's not doing anything. The blood is on her hands."
Also last night, as the drama surrounding Mensah played out inside the jail lobby, a group of activists held an impromptu demonstration outside to protest the deaths and lack of transparency from the administration.
One of the speakers was Inez Bordeaux with the ArchCity Defenders. She focused her comments on Jones.
"I remember when this administration was running, saying, ‘We're going to be transparent. We are going to change the culture of this city. We are going to change the culture in the police department. We are going to change the culture in the jail. We are going to reimagine public safety," said Bordeaux. "Here we are two years later. It might as well be Lyda still in charge."
"I haven't seen a single change," Bordeaux said.
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