ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones took a weekend tour of both St. Louis city jails along with U.S. Rep. Cori Bush and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.
All three elected officials say they are alarmed by the conditions at the City Justice Center and the Medium Security Institution, also known as the Workhouse.
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"Trash stacked up. Stuff lining the hallway. It was absolutely disgusting," Rep. Bush said.
"I look forward to the criminal justice ecosystem coming together and having real conversations on the complexities of this problem," Gardner said. "This is not going to change overnight."
"One of the most alarming things I was told was how they're being fed," Jones said. "It's like mystery meat."
"The majority of people we saw at both facilities are black," Jones said. "We don't need two jails. We need to move people through the system. We need to find alternatives to jails for some of the offenses."
Jones has vowed to close the Medium Security Institution within 100 days of taking office as Mayor of St. Louis. Defunding it is in the new budget, which will be voted on this week.
The downtown St. Louis jail has been the site of multiple riots this year. On two occasions, inmates broke out windows, set fires and threw debris on to the streets below.
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