Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah is out as St. Louis' corrections commissioner.
Mayor Tishaura Jones fired Clemons-Abdullah on Saturday and named Tammy Ross as the acting commissioner of corrections, according to a statement from the mayor's office.
Clemons-Abdullah faced years of public scrutiny over her management of the City Justice Center, including calls for her resignation from members of the St. Louis Detention Facilities Oversight Board.
Her rocky three-year tenure was marked by a 2023 incident in which detainees took hostage a guard in his 70s and injured him and the deaths of 13 detainees at the jail. Attorneys say they’ve struggled to speak to their clients in the jail.
Clemons-Abdullah returned to work Dec. 9 after a nearly three-month leave of absence. The reason for the leave has not been explained publicly. Her return to office drew rebukes and skepticism from critics of the jail.
The corrections commissioner has been at odds with the Detention Facilities Oversight Board over a lack of transparency and poor conditions at the city jail. But during her first week back, Clemons-Abdullah told the oversight board’s chairman, the Rev. Darryl Gray, that she would make corrections officers available to the board to review internal and external complaints. “My jaw hit the ground because that’s all we’ve been asking for, for the last three years,” Gray told STLPR this week.
After Clemons-Abdullah’s firing Saturday, Gray said he hoped the jail’s next administration will honor the commitment to allow access to complaints. “I hope that her absence or departure does not give the public safety department an excuse to renege on the commitment that she made,” he said in a statement.
A spokesman for Board of Aldermen President Megan Green, long a critic of Clemons-Abdullah, said Green also hoped the new corrections commissioner would work to ensure “meaningful collaboration” between the city and the oversight board.
“Our office believes the new commissioner of corrections needs to prioritize the safety, dignity and rights of those awaiting trial,” the spokesman, Yusuf Daneshyar, added.
Fourteenth Ward Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, among the first politicians to call for Clemons-Abdullah to resign, agreed strongly that conditions at the jail need to be the first priority of a new leader.
“For years, we have witnessed countless situations at the jail that have raised more questions than answers,” he said. “New leadership must ensure that the jail is no longer a place that treats inmates inhumanely, especially those who have not been convicted of a crime.”
Aldridge told STLPR that Clemons-Abdullah appeared defensive during her tenure.
“She always seemed like it was her versus everybody," he said, "rather than saying, ‘How can we work together?’”
Aldridge’s colleague, 4th Ward Alderman Bret Narayan, said the public safety committee he chairs “remains committed on continuing to work to address the issues that CJC faces in tandem with the full Board of Aldermen, the new commissioner, the administration” and Doug Burris, the retired head of the St. Louis County jail who was recently hired by the city as a consultant.
ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit legal advocacy firm, said in a statement that “it had been clear for some time that Commissioner Clemons-Abdullah was an obstacle” to reform at the jail.
“The question is whether her removal will lead to substantive improvement in conditions, transparency, and accountability,” the organization said. ArchCity Defenders is part of a federal class-action lawsuit against the jail that claims corrections officers excessively and indiscriminately used mace and paper spray on detainees.
Clemons-Abdullah was making $158,574 when she was fired. Ross was making about $109,000 as a deputy commissioner.
