CLAYTON — A final audit of the St. Louis County jail will include an assessment of how inmate deaths were handled, officials said Friday while delivering a preliminary report on the facility.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page’s administration said last month that medical records on the deaths, including five in 2019 and one in 2020, were confidential and wouldn’t be shared with outside auditors.
But Justice Services Director Scott Anders told a citizen review panel Friday that the auditors, CGL Companies, were, in fact, reviewing other internal reports on the deaths and how they were investigated internally, after the panel asked for an update on the audit’s scope.
“That process is happening now,†Anders said.
The panel, known as the Justice Services Advisory Board, first called for an outside investigation of the jail in August 2020, when Raul Banasco resigned as jail director after less than a year on the job.
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CGL was hired in November 2021 after a series of delays that prompted two outspoken members of the advisory board to resign in protest. But it was again thrown into question last month when the county said medical records on the inmate deaths were confidential.
Dr. Faisal Khan, acting health director, told the board in an email that CGL had “misunderstood†the scope of the review when it requested the documents, which he said were confidential even to him.
Advisory board members said they learned afterward that an initial bid for an auditor had been changed to remove language specifying an investigation into the six recent inmate deaths as well as any in the prior five-year period. On Friday, they still didn’t understand what led to the change.
“I still don’t have a clear answer to what happened,†said Tim McBride, who had asked Anders for an update on whether the audit would examine jail deaths.
Jeff Smith, chair of the advisory board, said “none of us has a totally clear answer.â€
“It was something that happened in other county offices, some changes were made, which I know frustrated all of us on the board,†Smith said. But he said he was “glad†that “investigative reports around the deaths will be examined.â€
Anders said there was “pending litigation and questions about access to medical reports.â€
Two lawsuits related to inmate deaths in 2019 still are pending.
Asked for a response, Page spokesman Doug Moore said the request for proposals was reviewed to “see if changes were needed to make it clearer for future bidders†after it only received one response. During that process, county attorneys “flagged†an issue with releasing medical records, he said.
“CGL can still review what processes were or were not in place and whether policies and procedures were followed,†Moore said.
Issues
In an hourlong session, described a jail that was a far cry from 2019, when most of the deaths took place.
Interviews with more than 150 employees, Mohr said, showed improved conditions under Anders, who became director in October, and his predecessor Doug Burris, who had replaced Banasco in September 2020.
The facility was clean and orderly and employees felt safe, Becker said. The jail had made significant strides in recruiting officers to address staffing shortages like those in November, when guard was hospitalized in an attack.
CGL also praised health care at the jail, as well as educational services for inmates, including chess tournaments, culinary programs and personal electric tablets that allow inmates to take online classes and make phone calls to family.
“There’s been a lot of focus on the problems at the facility and the problems are very real, but ... you do have a lot of very good things going on here,†Becker said.
But issues with the jail’s workplace environment and internal organization still remain, including poor internal communications, inconsistent workplace policies, and an “excess number of senior managers,†with no real difference in responsibilities between lieutenants and sergeants. CGL suggested the rank of sergeant could be “phased out.â€
Some workers also complained of “favoritism†in promotions and scheduling, Mohr said.
That was in part because of a scheduling system in the jail that divides groups of officers by the floors they work on. Deputy Director Darby Howard said the jail had done that so officers would “take ownership†of conditions on their floor.
But CGL auditors said that it defied common practice for most jails, and led to less flexibility to handle shortages. Entire shifts were filled by workers who were on overtime.
“It’s a much more chaotic system,†Becker said.
Training for new recruits needed to be revamped, Mohr added, to include more direct supervision on the job by more experienced workers.
Classes to train new recruits were done well, he said, but the instructors themselves “often did not have much more seniority than new employees.â€
CGL also suggested the jail create a “diverse†group to revise workplace policies and make them more consistent, and develop a “formal†system of communication, including weekly meetings with command staff and an employee newsletter.
Auditors also said Friday that jail is relying too much on contracts with nursing agencies to address staffing shortages. But there “doesn’t seem to be real solutions,†Becker said, in light of a nationwide worker shortage in nursing and health care that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Smith asked CGL whether they had heard employees talk about “factions†among the staff. But CGL said they didn’t get that complaint.
In 2020, dozens of jail employees had signed a letter accusing Banasco of bullying and intimidation, but others had alleged Banasco’s reforms were undermined by a cabal of senior officers.
Banasco, who was hired in November 2019, was the jail’s first permanent director since the retirement of Herbert Bernsen in early 2018.
Mohr said the changes in leadership had an impact on the facility and that employees told “significant stories†about past leadership that were “descriptive†and “consistent.â€
“In my mind some of the staff were victimized by the previous leadership,†Mohr said.
Becker went further, saying CGL had “run across Banasco†when examining other facilities, he said.
“The fact of the matter is that you’re still dealing with the fallout of the Banasco regime here,†he said.