At the heart of the fight over who should be transporting detainees in need of medical care is varying degrees of staffing problems.
The St. Louis City Justice Center has for years been struggling with fewer correctional officers and a rising amount of detainees at the jail. Currently, jail leaders say they are looking to hire around forty Correctional Officers to reach budgeted strength.
On Friday the Board of Aldermen passed a bill requiring the sheriff transport detainees in need of emergency medical care. New Commissioner of Corrections Nate Hayward tells KMOX the jail struggled that same day with lack of staffing when the sheriff's department refused to transport five detainees in need of emergency medical care.
"Deputy Director [Tammy] Ross called me and let me know that we were down [COs] because of the ten officers that went to the hospital post."
Hayward explains having to pull officers away from watching the detainees leaves security thin.
"Once we send the ten officers down to the hospital, that takes away from the jail. So instead of having two officers in the unit, it brings it down to one.
Hayward says they never get down to zero officers in a unit because on days like Friday, and through the weekend, they are calling in off duty correctional officers to work overtime. While this allows them to more adequately staff the jail, he says this significantly eats into their budget.
Despite being near their budgeted strength, Sheriff's Attorney and former Judge David C. Mason says they cannot safely continue to transport detainees in need of emergency medical care and defend the courthouses.
"The civil courts, the Cahill Courthouse, the Carnahan Courthouse and the Juvenile Court building, that duty is going to be undermined because you're going to have to keep pulling people away."
Mason paints a bleak picture of what a safety lapse could look like at the courthouse.
"The sheriff is gonna have to constantly be pulling people out of security duty. That leaves a hole in building security. Which I suspect the Board of Aldermen won't care about until a judge, court reporter, lawyer or juror is shot."
But a dangerous situations brew at the jail when medical transportation leaves them short staffed says Commissioner Hayward. He explains when his officers are pulled away from their duty for medical transport, the lack of manpower results in detainees losing recreational time, calling it a security risk.
"You want to keep [the detainees] at peace. Letting them out and having time to call their families... that's the time that they have to mingle with other residents."
Hayward says this could raise tensions inside the facility.
"It is a security risk because it puts a lot of strain on other officers here at the jail."
Transporting detainees in need of medical care has been a longtime practice of the St. Louis City Sheriff's department, going back decades. Mason acknowledges this but says there is no legal obligation for them to do so.
Mason and Sheriff Montgomery have requested a larger budget to hire more deputies to help with transportation.
Friday's bill, passed by the Board of Aldermen, was signed into law by Mayor Cara Spencer on Monday. Montgomery's attorneys quickly filed a lawsuit and are seeking a temporary restraining order to block the law from taking effect. A hearing on that temporary restraining order is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Montgomery's refusal to transport detainees in need of emergency medical care is one of the five counts against him in the quo warranto filed by then Attorney General Andrew Bailey. Montgomery's trial on those counts is November 18th.