ST. LOUIS — A plan to let voters weigh in on the city workhouse issue at the April 6 election advanced Thursday at the Board of Aldermen.
The aldermanic Public Safety Committee sent the bill calling for a nonbinding referendum to the full board. The board last July unanimously passed an ordinance directing corrections officials to prepare a plan to shut down the controversial ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Medium Security Institution on Hall Street by Dec. 31.
The closure has yet to happen, however, as Mayor Lyda Krewson said last month that doing so this quickly would result in overcrowding at the city’s main jail downtown amid the coronavirus pandemic.
City officials also say they’ve been unable to find space available for city detainees in other jails closer than a few hours away.
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“The workhouse belongs to the people and the people should have a voice on closing the workhouse,†argued the bill’s sponsor, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, D-22nd Ward. Boyd and other committee members agree with the mayor’s approach.
But opponents said putting the issue on the ballot would backtrack on something the board already has decided.
“To keep coming back and rehashing this over and over again really is an embarrassment to this entire board,†said Alderman Christine Ingrassia, D-6th Ward, who isn’t a member of the committee.
The public safety panel voted 5-0 to endorse the bill.
Criminal justice activists pushing for closure for several years have cited substandard conditions at the 54-year-old facility and other issues. City officials insist that conditions have improved.
Krewson, who isn’t seeking a second term in the upcoming city elections, had argued against closing the facility during much of her mayoral tenure, saying it was still needed.
However, she signed the bill passed by aldermen last summer while saying she didn’t know if the Dec. 31 closure target was feasible.
Resurfacing at the teleconference meeting was ongoing strain between white progressive aldermen allied with activists pushing for immediate closure and some African American board members favoring a more cautious approach.
One Black member, Tammika Hubbard, D-5th Ward, says she hasn’t heard an outcry from her constituents favoring closing the workhouse.
She said she trusts city corrections officials’ views on the closure’s feasibility as opposed to “some organization that’s filled with people who don’t look like me telling me what’s in the best interest of my community.â€
In response, 8th Ward Alderman Annie Rice, who is white, said the activist effort to close the workhouse was in response to requests from nonprofit organizations “whose boards and whose staff are Black.â€
“This is not about white folks from the South Side telling the North Side what to do,†Rice said.
Alderman Sharon Tyus, D-1st Ward, a longtime board member, said she found Rice’s words racist.
“I am insulted because you said ‘we got some Black people’†involved in the closure campaign, said Tyus, who is Black. “That’s akin to saying we got Black friends, one Black friend.â€
“Nobody here has represented North ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ longer than me and advocated longer than me,†she added, saying Black organizations Rice referred to can’t speak for her.
Rice said she didn’t mean to insult Tyus and was only responding to previous comments indicating that the closure effort “was not being brought by folks who were impacted.â€
Later, Tyus said she “let my temper get the best of me†and asked the committee to “forgive me for my outburst.â€
Meanwhile, the politically influential Carpenters Union — which represents many city corrections workers — has urged aldermen and the mayor “not to act hastily†on its workhouse decision, union official Matt Murphy told the Post-Dispatch.
The union also said it welcomes input from voters on the issue. “Our chief concern, however, is the health and safety of both the inmates and the staff charged with their wellbeing†whatever is decided on, said Jeff Haantz, another union official.
Updated at 6:30 p.m.
