ST. LOUIS — The city in 2021 purchased $17,000 worth of pepper spray to use in its jails. Now, a group of current and former detainees have filed a “staggering amount of evidenceâ€Â in their lawsuit against the city claiming they were excessively pepper-sprayed while in custody.
The evidence, submitted last week, contains hundreds of use-of-force reports, dozens of statements and of correctional officers pepper-spraying detainees, according to a news release from their attorneys.
“This trove of documents and videos further prove what has already become evident over the years: CJC (City Justice Center) correctional officers are weaponizing chemical agents and other torture tactics in retaliation, for punitive reasons, or just because they can as an exercise of power,†MacArthur Justice Center Attorney Shubra Ohri said in a statement. “And what’s more — the city’s efforts to hide and cover up the abuse sanctions it and allows it to continue festering without accountability.â€
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The lawsuit was filed in February 2021 and the evidence submitted last week ranges from incidents in 2019 to 2022, but lawyers said the abuse has gone on for at least six years. They said the full extent of the abuse is still unclear.
Attorneys also allege the city “deleted nearly 80% of video footage responsive to the plaintiffs’ discovery requests.â€
Both the mayor’s office and the city’s public safety department declined to comment because they do not discuss pending litigation.Â
The video clips, posted in a compilation on show detainees pepper-sprayed in common areas, dragged on the ground and pepper-sprayed in their cells.
One clip shows a handcuffed inmate on the ground as a CJC employee sprays the chemical directly in his face.
Another clip is of corrections officers talking, one saying they have to pepper-spray inmates because “you got to send a message.â€Â
“I’m going to spray him right in his (expletive) face,†an officer said in that clip. “He ain’t going to see it coming.â€
In March 2021, the city ordered $17,379 of pepper spray, the same amount it had purchased in the previous six years combined, according to city records obtained in an open records request. The order included 100 16-ounce “cell buster†canisters, 200 16-ounce canisters and 500 3-ounce canisters.
Former Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass approved the order about a month before Tishaura O. Jones was sworn in as mayor. He retired in May the same year.
Records for pepper spray purchases since March 2021 were not immediately available.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys said city officials found only nine use-of-force incidents were not justified out of the 1,241 incidents they reviewed.Â
They also highlighted that there were at least 250 times when corrections officers pepper-sprayed passively resistant detainees, at least 50 times when detainees on suicide watch were pepper-sprayed and at least 70 times when corrections officers used “riot sized†pepper spray cans designed for crowds.
Their suit alleges the city has failed to stop the abusive behavior at the jail.Â
The City Justice Center has for several years been at the center of public scrutiny, including in 2021 after a string of high-profile uprisings over conditions at the jail. Detainees in those uprisings broke out of their cells to break windows, shout to spectators, set things on fire and throw debris to the sidewalk.Â
Then, in 2022, six people died while detained at the jail in the span of six months.
Most recently, the jail has been at the center of a battle between the city’s Detention Facilities Oversight Board and the jail staff. Members of the board say jail staff is obstructing their work, including denying their requests to tour the jail.
The group of plaintiffs in the lawsuit is represented by the MacArthur Justice Center, ArchCity Defenders, Rights Behind Bars and the St. Louis University School of Law Legal Clinics.Â