Members of the St. Louis Detention Facilities Oversight Board are expressing outrage that police forcibly removed from the jail a board member who was seeking information on a detainee's death.
Board member Janis Mensah visited the jail to learn more about a detainee who died Thursday. Mensah said they arrived at the jail after 5 p.m. and waited in the lobby until about 8:30 p.m., when corrections workers said they were shutting down the lobby and told Mensah to leave. Outside the jail, activists gathered to protest the detainee's death, and that of Carlton Bernard, who died on Aug. 20.
Mensah said two police officers handcuffed them and threw them to the ground. Police gave Mensah a citation for trespassing and resisting arrest before transporting Mensah to St. Louis University Hospital. Mensah is due in court on Oct. 4.
“They said they were going to process me and fingerprint me, but they never did,” Mensah said. “They never read me my rights or anything so I couldn't tell if I was under arrest or not.”
Members of the oversight board say what happened to Mensah is another indication that jail officials are preventing board members from fulfilling their roles. The St. Louis Board of Aldermen last year passed an ordinance to establish the nine-member board and empowered it to investigate complaints at the city jail.
Mensah said they’ve been denied access five times after notifying jail workers that they would visit the city justice center. Mensah said police also removed them from the jail in April after a detainee complained about jail conditions.
In June, board members called on Mayor Tishaura Jones and interim Public Safety Director Charles Coyle to ask Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah to resign.
The board also accused Clemons-Abdullah and the city counselor's office of blocking board efforts to get more information about jail complaints.
At least nine people have died at the jail over the past two years. In response to the latest death, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety said in a statement that the medical examiner’s office is investigating the death and that the safety of detainees is a top priority.
But Mensah said the lack of transparency is alarming.
“Even though the mayor made this oversight board, it seems like the jail doesn't want to stop the deaths,” Mensah said. “They just want to hide them, they just want to hide all of the harm that they're doing.”
Board of Alderman President Megan Green said in a statement Friday that the oversight board has been significantly hindered by the city counselor's office interpretation of the ordinance that established the board and called for a change in jail leadership.
“Requiring the [Detention Facilities Oversight Board] to only access information through the city counselor's office — the same office charged with shielding the city from litigation — creates an inherent conflict of interest and obstructs the DFOB from providing effective oversight,” Green said in a statement.
Green said the public safety committee will update the ordinance that created the oversight board this legislative session to ensure transparency.
The language detailing the board member’s access to information and what kind of training they need to take before visiting the city justice center needs to be clear, Alderman Rasheen Aldridge said.
Aldridge said city leaders need to consider whether Clemons-Abdullah should keep her job.
“I don't want to be jumping the gun with saying, ‘release the current commissioner.’ But at some point, you need to look and see if she is able to ensure that this facility is being run properly. And right now, I don't have that faith that she can do it,” Aldridge said.
On Friday, a coalition of more than 10 activist groups shared an online petition calling for the commissioner to resign, for city leaders to give oversight board members the access they need to perform their duties and for city leaders to share all policy changes related to jail with the public.
Oversight board member and Freedom Community Center founder Mike Milton said Jones and her administration should prioritize transparency at the jails to help the board do its job.
“It's been 18 months, almost 19 months since we've been sworn in, and we still have not gotten not one piece of information, not one jail complaint, not one video,” Milton said. “At the same time, nine people have died. So this is clear, extremely clear that the city does not want us to have any information.”
