St. Louis County jail director sheds light on overcrowding and staffing shortages 31%
By Lacretia Wimbley0%
4/13/2026, 10:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Self-Serving Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Anecdotal, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 14.7% saturation with 154 hits. Analysis detected 528 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,049 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 40.2% and a BS Rank of 31% (11,676 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 69.40% of the article peer group.
Leaders at the St.
Louis County jail are hopeful improvements they've made will allow it to pass an upcoming inspection.
The Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton is the only American Correctional Association-accredited jail in Missouri for adult local detention facilities.
But that accreditation hangs in the balance after a failed inspection last September.
Jonel Coleman has been acting director of the St.
Louis County Justice Center for seven months.
During a recent interview, she touted improvements at the facility, including efforts to reduce overcrowding.
She said that, while things are not perfect, staff members are doing their best with limited resources.
“Is it always perfect?
No, but the people that I'm putting in place are similar to me in that they really do care about what happens to these individuals, regardless of what is being said,” Coleman said.
The jail currently has an 80-officer shortage, which affects operations and staff morale, Coleman said.
She echoed the need for millions of dollars for infrastructure improvements, as well as enough funding to pay staff well.
This year the jail's budget is $300,000 less than last year and $1.2 million less than jail officials had hoped the St.
Louis County Council would approve.
Capacity issues
As of April 5, the jail had 34 people more than its stated capacity of 1,232.
But Coleman said being over capacity isn't what people think.
“A lot of times when people hear over capacity, they think that there are zero beds,” Coleman said.
“That is not the case.
We have to classify people.
We don't just throw people together randomly.
If you're here because you didn't pay your ticket and there's a warrant out for your arrest and you had to come here, we're not putting you in the same area as we put an individual with murder charges.”
She said most of the crowding is in places of the jail reserved for mid- to lower-level felony offenses ranging from stealing to third-degree assault.
As of last week, jail officials reported 1,090 people were awaiting trial, with more than 400 people facing those charges.
There were 588 people at the jail facing higher-level felonies, such as first-degree murder and first-degree burglary.
Coleman said two people are sometimes put in a single cell.
“Nobody is sleeping on the ground,” Coleman said.
“We have a plastic boat with a mattress inside that that person sleeps on.
No one has to sleep with their head near the toilet.
That would be a choice.
They could sleep with their head towards the door, and as soon as we have another opening, we move people in and out of there.”
Coleman said the jail is also working with nonprofits to find creative ways to eliminate overcrowding, such as helping detainees afford bail.
It's also working with the Safety and Justice Challenge, which screens certain detainees with lower-level violations and fast-tracks their hearings.
Improvements
The county Department of Justice Services received accreditation from the ACA in 2022 after scoring 100% on an audit for mandatory standards for the St.
Louis County jail.
Coleman said that after the jail failed an ACA inspection last year, inspectors are now slated to return this summer.
“You can't miss one mandatory,” Coleman said.
“The first mandatory we missed was in the kitchen.
Everything that was down there that was wrong, we fixed.
There was a complaint about the temperature of the food all the time.
Well, we purchased hot carts.
I don't have a problem understanding that you do not want to eat lukewarm food every day.”
Other improvements previously noted by jail officials include:
The addition of more cleaning crews with mandatory cleaning days implemented.
Public Works ensuring all flammable, toxic and caustic materials are placed in a cabinet designed for those materials.
The kitchen contractor bringing in new management, and all kitchen staff and detainees being retrained and held to higher standards.
Regular inspections are being conducted daily.
A new area to prepare kosher meals in the works.
“The ACA accreditation is important to us because we make it important,” Coleman said.
“The ACA accreditation is not required.
It's a standard that we're trying to hold ourselves to.”
Staffing shortages
Coleman said people frequently are fired who turn out to not be a good fit at the jail — by failing to show up for work, for instance.
STLPR spoke with a former correctional officer at the jail who had concerns about how detainees are treated by staff.
Coleman said she pays attention to the news and acknowledges the complaints.
She said the staffing shortage causes current employees to be overworked, which may impact their mood.
“When your staff is overworked, how does that affect your behavior when you're working and working and working?
It makes them a bit more short than probably what they would normally be,” Coleman said.
Incentives for pay at the county jail are comparatively low, according to Coleman.
An annual starting salary for a correctional officer at the county jail is roughly $43,992, compared to $44,699 at the St.
Louis City Justice Center, $49,465 in St.
Charles County and $50,000 in the Kansas City region.
With a shortage of 80 officers and an overpopulated facility, Coleman said she is concerned about how often the jail has to limit the time detainees can spend outside their cells.
O'Fallon, Missouri, resident Susan Martin said her son's mental health has declined at the jail due to only being allowed out for one hour a day, if at all.
“That's a big problem.
I'm an advocate for residents' rights.
I'm an advocate for mental health, so I want to give them what they are supposed to have all the time.
But we are somewhat hindered by the staffing shortage,” Coleman said.
She said with a lack of staff, detainees have to be kept in their cells as the jail is shut down to ensure people get to their court dates, and others can receive medical care.
“It affects us operationally all around,” she added.
At least six people have died while in custody of the county jail since 2020, including 39-year-old Robin Marshall-Smith, who died last month due to medical issues.
Clayton police said they are investigating potential medical neglect.
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