A group of protesters posted up outside the jail in downtown St. Louis Monday morning, demanding some answers.
Protestors want to know the causes of death for six inmates that died at the jail in the last five months. Two of those deaths happened within days of each other, on September 3 and September 6 of this year.
The protestors also called for better treatment, including stopping the use of mace and other chemical agents on inmates as punishment. They also want a reliable supply of drinking water for inmates, saying it's not available to all of them.
Local advocacy groups like the ArchCity Defenders, Freedom Community Centers, and more are coming together in hopes of getting answers and encouraging reforms.
In a press release, the organizations say that according to the jail, the causes of those inmate deaths are things like suicide, overdose or medical emergencies. But because of what the organization calls a lack of transparency at the jail, there's "no certainty as to how each of these six people died."
According to reporting by the Associated Press, this number of deaths in a short span of time is uncommon in jails. They report that "around three-quarters of U.S. jails don’t average any deaths in a calendar year."
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