ST. LOUIS — Members of a new civilian jail oversight board say they’re frustrated that legal questions connected to a police union lawsuit against the city are preventing them from investigating the deaths of six people in the City Justice Center.
City Counselor Sheena Hamilton has advised the to remain inactive until a judge clarifies whether a recent preliminary injunction connected to the lawsuit applies to the jail board. The unions’ attorneys say that was not their intention.
Six people incarcerated at the jail have died this year, far above the national annual average of roughly two deaths per 1,000 inmates. The City Justice Center’s population has hovered at just above 500 people since January. The most recent death happened Sept. 6.
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“Please let us know when we can start. It’s important that we get to the problems in the jail,†Barbara Baker, a jail oversight board member, said in an email to other board members. “It’s very scary and concerning surrounding the problems there.â€
Board member Pamela Walker, a former city health department director, said in an email to members that she is concerned about mental and physical health conditions in the jail. The deaths “need to be investigated in a thorough, methodological, data-driven and transparent manner,†she wrote.
With the jail board unable to meet, the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee will hear from the city’s top safety and jail officials at its meeting Oct. 5.
The Detention Facility Oversight Board is caught in a legal tussle between the city and two police unions trying to stop the law that established a new agency — the Division of Civilian Oversight — and one of its two boards, the Civilian Oversight Board, which focuses on police.
The agency and civilian boards are controversial because they have subpoena power to investigate complaints, misconduct and use-of-force incidents involving police or the jails.
After ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones signed the law creating the Division of Civilian Oversight in August, she and the city’s public safety director said the new agency would “build trust.â€
However, in their lawsuit filed Aug. 8, the Ethical Society of Police and ºüÀêÊÓƵ Police Officers Association argued that the Civilian Oversight Board would cause irreparable harm to the city’s public safety and harm recruitment and retention of police officers in the city.
A judge’s preliminary injunction Sept. 9 put a hold on the ordinance that established the civilian police oversight board but did not specifically mention the ordinance that created the jail oversight board. Hamilton interpreted the order as covering both boards because they’re both under the Division of Civilian Oversight. She filed a request for court clarification Sept. 19.
Sherri Hall, an attorney representing the Ethical Society of Police, said that the lawsuit and injunction case don’t involve the jail board because it’s not legally attached to the oversight review board.
“I don’t think the judge’s relief includes the detention facility and that they could go ahead and move forward,†she said.
Alderman Sharon Tyus, who is also an attorney, said at the Public Safety Committee meeting last week that she thinks the jail oversight board should have never been blocked from meeting.
However, even supporters of jail oversight board, such as Alderman Brandon Bosley, said he understands the city counselor’s caution.
“Why not listen to your lawyers? That makes the most sense to me,†said Bosley. “We just need to be correct in the way that we move.â€