St. Louis Division of Corrections

The 35-year-old was left in his own feces for days, his attorney said.

Mayor Tishaura Jones first appointed members of the Detention Facilities Oversight Board in 2022, but legal battles and a failure to complete required training meant the board could not access the downtown jail until now.

A new law on oversight took effect in 2022 but immediately faced legal challenges. The work has also been delayed by disputes over access to complaints and to the City Justice Center, St. Louis’ jail.

Two inmates with a history of disciplinary problems took the guard, a man in his 70s, hostage during breakfast service around 6 a.m. A police SWAT team had to use less-than-lethal force to rescue him.

Cash bail has largely disappeared in St. Louis. Instead, circuit court judges are increasingly denying bond altogether, a new report from the Freedom Community Center found.

Last month, more than 100 detainees at the St. Louis Justice Center revolted, attacking a guard, smashing windows and setting fires to protest their living conditions. The detainees held a floor of the jail for nearly seven hours. Now a new task force, created to investigate conditions in the jail, has released a report that seeks to explain what went wrong and what it will take to fix it.

The St. Louis Department of Health and Division of Corrections are vaccinating 800 people at the city’s two jails to prevent a national hepatitis A…