Seven detainees at the St. Louis City Justice Center gained certificates Monday qualifying them to work in the food service industry through a recently introduced program called ServSafe.
The program is the latest effort to increase programming at the CJC, following the Prison to Prosperity initiative that was revamped at the jail last month. The St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment runs that program and provides resources for detainees to overcome barriers to obtaining housing, jobs and education. SLATE meets with detainees twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Upon leaving custody, ServSafe-certified participants are qualified to apply for jobs at restaurants, grocery stores, and other food service companies. The program is accredited by the National Restaurant Association and began in early April. It lasts up to two weeks at a time, said Tyrone Simpkins, Food Service Director for Summit Food Services.
Summit oversees food prep for the three hot meals provided each day at the CJC. They usually include a protein, starch and a vegetable, officials said. Pizza was on the menu Monday night, but on other nights detainees have other options like chicken patties, hamburgers and tacos, as well as oatmeal, sausages, eggs and grits for breakfast.
“It’s a good foot up going out into the world to be able to have this certification,” Simpkins said. “It's the basic knowledge of food handling that you've graduated and passed. For most places, you need to have that to even be able to work in them. So they kind of got one step ahead already.”
Graduates Marion Keenan and Edward Shelton shared their experiences in a small room at the CJC, where the ceremony was held, highlighting the program's impact on their cooking skills.
Keenan, 62, became teary-eyed after not only receiving his ServSafe certificate Monday, but also getting word that he will officially be released next weekend. He’s been in custody at the CJC for nearly a year on charges of drug possession, stealing copper wire and trespassing.
“Mr. Ty from the kitchen has kept me working for eight months, and it’s been a big blessing for me,” Keenan said. “I’m going to try for any kitchen that will take me through (ServSafe) and through SLATE, and I don’t know exactly where, but they’ll help me.”
Standing before his peers in the room on Monday, Shelton said, “I had no cooking history experience, but this program helped me and helped a lot of other guys."
Simpkins is a proctor for ServSafe, meaning he can teach the class and provide the certification test for detainees. He and Betty Mullat, the client service coordinator at CJC, work together to split up and teach the classes.
“We kind of break it down into smaller sections for these guys,” Simpkins said. “So we do half the class up here (in a classroom setting), then we go down to the kitchen and we try to apply what we learned.” He added that by the fourth class, they’re conducting a practice test before taking the final assessment to receive certification.
The ServSafe certification is good for three years. It allows those who complete the program to work in higher-paying restaurant settings like Chili’s, Outback Steakhouse or Applebee’s once released, as well as fast-food chains and other food service companies.
Interim Commissioner of Corrections Doug Burris said a veterans program also was started at the CJC over a month ago, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“It's really shameful how we treat our veterans when they return,” Burris said. “Their suicide rates are, like, four times higher than that of the general society, and we really need to do more for them.”
Through the program, the VA helps detainees prepare for their release by assisting with housing, medical care and more to ensure they have a smooth reentry, Burris said.
“And what's great about that is they also have programs that are related to this in the state prison system,” he said. “So if people leave here to go to prison, it's going to complement what they're going to get at the state before the release.”
When asked if he had a message for critics of his efforts to change things at the city jail — particularly after a detainee recently died in custody on March 23 — Burris had few words.
"Judge us not by our words, but by our actions," he said.
This story has been updated to fully list Marion Keenan’s criminal charges.
