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St. Louis Law Enforcement Dismiss COVID Concerns Sparked City Jail Uprising Despite a Surge in Cases Only 2 Weeks Ago

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The situation is “under control” at St. Louis’ “Justice Center” City Jail following an uprising by inmates amid COVID-19 concerns. 
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that this is the third recent disturbance at the Justice Center, and that in the other cases “inmates had expressed concern about unsafe conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.” One corrections officer was reportedly injured.

Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards called the men “dangerous.”

The events began around 2:30 a.m. Saturday when an inmate who Edwards said “was very, very upset” fought with a guard. Other inmates then jumped the guard.

 

5 On Your Side reported that Edwards said, “These are angry, defiant, violent people that we housed at the justice center. There is no one housed for misdemeanor, municipal offense or a low-level felony. These are assaults on a police officer, homicide, things of that sort — very, very violent men that are housed in these two units.”

 

Edwards also said there are no COVID-19 positive detainees at the justice center, despite SLD reporter Taylor Harris’ claim that although “Edwards says there are no COVID-19 cases at the jail. Pretty notable considering jails & prisons across the country have been documented as being COVID-19 hotspots. & about 3 weeks ago officials reported a surge with 30 active cases as of Jan. 12.”

State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, however, was doubtful of Edwards’ claim, saying in a statement that “there are never protests without demands.”

Blake Strode, executive director of the legal advocacy group ArchCity Defenders, said his organization has heard time and again from inmates concerned about exposure to COVID-19, lack of testing for the coronavirus and little effort made to separate infected inmates from others.

On January 12 it was reported that the City Justice Center had a “surge” in coronavirus cases. The rise in cases happened in mid-December, officials said. As of Tuesday, there were 30 active cases among inmates at both the Justice Center and the St. Louis Medium Security Institution, Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass said.

Keeping detainees isolated has proven easier at the Medium Security Institution, also known as the workhouse, where each inmate in the near-empty facility can have their own cell, Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards said Tuesday during a Health and Human Services Committee meeting. “I might add that we’ve had no one be hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 over the entire period,” Edwards told the committee. “Most folks tested positive as a result of us doing testing of the facility, and most were asymptomatic. We’ve had five people with low-grade fevers that we’ve monitored very closely.”

Edwards said that over the course of the pandemic, about 85 inmates at the two jails have been either exposed to or infected by the coronavirus.

Aldermanic President Lewis Reed’s office said CJC detainees had expressed fears about being infected with COVID-19, but other city officials at the time denied there were any reported coronavirus cases among the general population of inmates.

Inez Bordeaux, an activist with Arch City Defenders and organizer of the Close The Workhouse campaign, said during the committee meeting that several inmates described to her “hellish, unconstitutional, inhumane conditions.”