ST. LOUIS COUNTY — A half-dozen local social justice organizations say St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell has failed to deliver on several progressive campaign platforms, according to a report released Wednesday.
Moreover, said the report from the coalition, it’s been “extremely difficult†to evaluate Bell’s office, largely because he either didn’t collect the data requested or didn’t provide it.
“(Bell) promised changes to address some of the key issues that plague the criminal legal system, including overcharging, lack of transparency, reliance on cash bail, and criminalization of poverty, drug use, and mental health illness,†the coalition said in the report. “Some of these results are a far cry from the progressive promises made to community members.â€
Bell, in the middle of a heated campaign against U.S. Rep. Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for 1st Congressional District, discounted the report as politics. Many of the organizations backing the report, he said, have endorsed Bush. And he said she won’t debate the issues publicly.
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“My opponent refusing to answer questions and hiding behind this group is disingenuous and does a grave disservice to this community,†he said.
Bush’s campaign staff said they had not seen the report and accused Bell of using Bush as a scapegoat “to evade responsibility.â€
The report was written by a group called the Prosecutor Organizing Table, formed in 2020 to address what some members saw “as gap between what prosecutor candidates have promised and what they have prioritized while in office,†according to the report. The coalition includes Action St. Louis, Freedom Community Center, Forward through Ferguson, MacArthur Justice Center, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty and well-known social justice advocates ArchCity Defenders.
ArchCity spokesperson Z Gorley said the coalition began its study of Bell’s office in 2022, long before Bell announced he was running in the Congressional race.
The 43-page report spells out specific prosecutorial topics and Bell’s response to each, when he provided one. It also includes the coalition’s recommendation for improvements in the office.
But the coalition also claims that Bell’s office did not respond to several requests for data or information, such as whether the office has a police officer exclusion list, bond recommendation data and whether the office employs a lobbyist.
They said they also asked about rates of people held in pre-trial detention and the frequency of court summons versus warrants.
The report noted the number of inmates in the St. Louis County jail is about the same as in 2018, when Bell ousted former Prosecutor Bob McCulloch by running on a promise to reform the criminal justice system and reduce the number of people in custody.
The coalition said it would soon release a similar report on the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office.
View life in St. Louis through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
