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If that’s the case, get ready for a Rorschach test of values in the city of St. Louis.

“We are about to enter an unusually contentious budget cycle where our city’s values will again be on full display,� says Montague Simmons.

He’s the campaign manager for the effort which seeks to shut down the city’s minimum security prison. Situated in north St. Louis, the so-called “workhouse� has been the over inadequate conditions for decades. As far back as 1974, federal judges have either ordered the city to cap the number of inmates, bring the facility up to constitutional standards or face shutting it down.

This week, Simmons’ group — which wants to shut the facility for good — gained an important ally.

In a letter to the Close the Workhouse campaign, city Comptroller Darlene Green added her voice to those who want the decrepit jail built in 1966 to close its doors forever.

“Closing MSI is the right thing to do,� Green wrote. “It is within reach and can be completed in a matter of months, not years, with focus from the administration.�

Green is one of three key votes when it comes to approving the city’s budget. Mayor Lyda Krewson and Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed are the others.

Her missive comes on the heels of a letter from Krewson’s chief of staff sent to aldermen this month. The letter came just a couple of days after I reported that the city’s head public defender, Mary Fox, believes that the city’s jail population is getting low enough that it makes perfectly good budget sense for the city to save the $16 million a year it spends to keep the workhouse open.

The way Fox sees it, if the city would stop housing about 200 federal prisoners in the modern City Justice Center, and continue efforts to reduce nonviolent pretrial detainees, there is simply no need to keep the workhouse open.

In a March 13 letter, Krewson’s chief of staff Steve Conway suggested that Fox and/or others pushing for the workhouse to close lacked “nuance.�

“Some argue that the City could close MSI and move its inmate population to CJC,� Conway wrote. “This may appear possible based on raw numbers, however, it is important to understand the complexities and nuances involved. There are Division of Corrections standards and regulations which must be followed. Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass often says, ‘10 beds doesn’t equal 10 people.’ For example, best practices and regulations require that women, relatives and co-defendants be separated.�

That letter spurred a response from the Close the Workhouse campaign, which backed Fox’s contention:

“There are 863 people currently being held by the City on City charges. The CJC capacity is 860,� Montague wrote. “Unless you actually believe that rearranging beds in a pod would be so difficult that it justifies spending $16 million per year on a ruined, uninhabitable facility and continuing to cage people unnecessarily, there is absolutely no reason why we cannot or should not close the Workhouse NOW.�

In a city that struggles to balance its budget every year, $16 million is a lot of money.

So why not find a way to save it? Green writes.

“A roadmap to closing MSI is achievable,� she writes. “This effort will take leadership and collaboration — across multiple departments and jurisdictions.�

There appears to be widespread agreement — from Krewson and Green, Fox and Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner, and the Close the Workhouse advocates — that eliminating pretrial detention for those facing nonviolent charges is a worthy goal that could further decrease the city’s jail population.

If that’s the case, the primary dispute seems to be what to do with the federal prisoners. The city makes about $1 million a year by housing them. Green agrees with Fox, that simple math says trying to find another place for those prisoners is in the taxpayers’ best interest.

“Coordinating with other departments of correction in the region could potentially provide any beds needed beyond what’s available at CJC,� she writes.

It’s budget time in the city of St. Louis and the elected official most responsible for protecting the city’s finances has put her thumb on the scale of justice.

Close the workhouse, she says.

Editor's note: This column has been updated to correct the date the workhouse was built.