After several contentious months, members of the board tasked with overseeing operations at St. Louis’ troubled City Justice Center will be allowed access to the jail this afternoon for 50 minutes.
Detention Facility Oversight Board members Pamela Walker and Reverend Darryl Gray confirmed to the RFT that they, alongside board member Ornetha Lewis-Walls, will conduct a walk through of the jail today at 2 p.m.
The oversight board has long complained that jail administration is blocking their access to the City Justice Center, preventing them from investigating complaints made by detainees and their families. The tension between the board and Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah has spiked in the past six months as the jail saw multiple inmate deaths, a hostage situation that may have well been a riot, detainees meeting their attorneys without pants and the oversight board's own vice-chair arrested in the jail's lobby.
In a sit down interview with KSDK last week, Clemons-Abdullah was asked directly if she believed the jail was safe for detainees and staff. She responded, “Nothing's ever 100% because you don't know people, but I can say when I'm aware of something, I address it.”
Amid the chaos, city officials claimed that oversight board members were unwilling to complete the 40 hours of training ordered by statute for them to enter the jail. Some board members said that the training requirements were intended as roadblocks rather than any sort of due diligence.
Walker confirmed to the RFT yesterday that she, Gray and Lewis-Wells — the three oversight board members taking part in today's walk-through — have now completed the required training.
"I am hopeful it is productive and can build some trust for future more meaningful site visits," Walker says.
However, Board member Mike Milton, who has been an outspoken critic of jail administration, says he was not allowed to take part in the walkthrough. "I'm glad to see that there's a step towards us getting access to the jail, but according to the law we should have had access the whole time, and not just three people, but everybody." He adds that he hopes the 50-minute walk through isn't a sanitized tour, but "a real honest look at the conditions of the jail."
Milton has also been outspoken in his criticisms of the training requirements but says he has nonetheless nearly completed them all. He says the only required training remaining is a 16-hour course, split into two sessions, on jail policies, which will be held at the jail itself.
He says that scheduling those two 8-hour blocks for board members has been incredibly challenging. "Which is also one of their tactics," he says.
Members of the oversight board conducting the walk through will hold a press conference outside the City Justice Center at 3 p.m. today, Gray tells the RFT.
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