A broken ceiling alarm and a malfunctioning back-door lock let a detainee slip out of the St. Louis City Justice Center this month, triggering a nearly 14-hour manhunt before he was caught. On Thursday, the city laid out the steps it says will keep it from happening again, including retraining officers, tightening overnight surveillance and bringing in an outside security company to assess the aging downtown facility.
The detainee climbed through ceiling tiles, made his way into a stairwell and then walked out a back door, according to firstalert4.com. The outlet reported that the ceiling's alarm system and the door's lock were not working at the time, allowing the exit to go undetected. St. Louis Public Safety Director Shawn Dace later told the Board of Aldermen's Public Safety Committee that the man had been left alone in a second-floor intake room while making a phone call, a lapse Dace described as a procedural failure, according to First Alert 4.
Police said the man was detained without incident and without a weapon after a search that stretched nearly 14 hours, per St. Louis Public Radio. The escape drew immediate scrutiny of the jail's physical security and staffing levels, both of which have been strained for years.
What the City Says It Will Fix
Dace told the committee that the city takes responsibility for the failure, the station's report noted. Officials outlined a list of changes: retraining officers, documenting security checks at exit doors, and taking other unspecified safety measures for staff. The city is also investigating why the alarm system failed in the first place and has hired an outside security company to assess the facility, per the same account.
Surveillance monitoring will be increased during the overnight hours of 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., and the city says it will review its procedures every 60 days going forward. Dace told the committee that staffing is most challenging during those same overnight shifts, and said he hopes the jail's staffing levels will rise by 20% by the end of the year, according to the station's reporting.
Aldermen Push Back on Grievance Policy
Not everyone left the hearing satisfied. Alderman Rasheen Aldridge said he had more questions than answers after hearing from the department, and that the community had requested the meeting in the first place. He said some of his colleagues wanted more direct answers from the person overseeing the jail's daily operations, and that the city's jail commissioner did not attend Thursday's hearing, the article notes.
Aldridge also raised concerns about how detainees are able to report problems from inside the facility. Inmates currently must pay to submit grievances through tablets, including complaints about safety issues and requests for medical care, the outlet reported. Aldridge said that policy needs to change. The hearing, he said, left him with more questions than answers about facility conditions and the city's plans to reduce the detainee population, and he said he was not relieved by Thursday's session, hoping for firmer answers and solutions when the city holds another hearing on November 12 — a session the jail commissioner is expected to attend.
A Jail Already Under Strain
The escape landed amid broader concerns about conditions inside the Justice Center. As of the October 19 report, the jail housed 860 detainees, up from 731 at the start of the year, per firstalert4.com. The St. Louis American reported that corrections officer employment fell 32% between 2021 and 2024 even as the detainee population grew 40% over the same stretch, and that the jail held 804 people as of Aug. 30 — about 94% of its stated capacity.
Those staffing gaps have persisted despite recruitment pushes. The jail hired 14 new correctional officers in May, but still had 58 vacancies and only 78 officers on staff at the time, St. Louis Public Radio reported, noting the facility has also faced leadership turnover, frequent 23-hour lockdowns, unclean conditions and neglect.
Those conditions have coincided with a troubling death toll. The Marshall Project found that at least 22 people have died at the jail since 2020, and 49 overall since the six-story facility opened in 2002, with untreated medical conditions, drug use and addiction, and suicide among the most common causes. The outlet also reported that the jail's detainee population has climbed steadily in recent years even as its ranks of corrections officers have dwindled.
Court records reviewed by local outlets differ on the exact criminal charges the escaped detainee now faces. Firstalert4.com reported he is facing a new felony charge for escaping the Justice Center, while St. Louis Public Radio reported he was charged with attempted escape from confinement along with two counts each of first-degree burglary and first-degree sodomy. The city's next public accounting of its reforms is expected on November 12, when the jail commissioner is slated to appear before aldermen.
