On February 7th, nearly three dozen detainees at the St. Louis County Jail started a riot, causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage to equipment. The incident got out of control when residents, upset with residents expressing frustration about dayroom time, phone access, and Wi Fi problems, began to barricade themselves in Housing Unit 7C, holding it down for approximately 40 minutes.
Protocol was followed, but decisions were not made in a timely manner according to the County's Acting Director of Justice Services Tim Ware.
"Decisions made during that process could've been different during that process."
One of those decisions, contacting Clayton Police Department for assistance, as the jail struggles with a lack of correctional officers.
"No one can really do it by themselves," says Ware, "we're always working together and that's what should have happened here."
Clayton PD was eventually called after the riot to assess the damage. Ware says it was estimated to be $30,800. He adds charges are pending with the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office.
The riot was quelled when correctional officers used a chemical agent to disperse the detainees. No serious injuries were reported.
Ware ties the correctional officer lack of training to the shortage of staff at the jail.
"We need to train on this in a regular basis... that's been hampered by our staffing challenges."
Ware says lack of staff is not an excuse but calls it a reality they deal with.
Ware is serving as the director of Justice Services in an acting capacity, only taking the role days ago. He took the place of Jonel Coleman, who remains with the County jail in a different role. I asked Ware if this incident was a factor in leadership change.
"We're working on some organizational structure... hopefully we can get some changes going."
Ware emphasized making changes multiple times during our interview, but also repeated pushed back against being interested in the job on a permanent basis. His promised changes include training.
"We also need to do more training on these types of situations so the correctional officers feel prepared when they're confronted with something this."
The investigative report recommends also standardizing responses to riots, improving use of force planning, addressing detainee concerns proactively and reinforcing leadership and policies.
Clayton PD should've been called in says acting jail director
Clayton PD should've been called in says acting jail director
