St. Louis officials hope to add 40-50 corrections officers, private security guards by end of March
ST. LOUIS MO March 12 2021 — City officials hope to add 40 to 50 more guards to the city’s two jails by the end of this month in an effort to beef up security following a riot Feb. 6 at the downtown jail.
“We’re heading toward a 50-50 mix right now” of new city-employed guards and private security, Todd Waelterman, a top aide to Mayor Lyda Krewson, said Tuesday.
He said the extra personnel will be deployed both at the main jail, called the Justice Center, and at the city Medium-Security Institution, also known as MSI and the workhouse.
In all, the city had about 80 open corrections officer positions. Waelterman said the city will continue to try to fill the remaining vacancies once the first group of officers is hired.
Comptroller Darlene Green in a news release last week said she worked with Personnel Director Richard Frank to facilitate the resumption of interviews for the vacancies.
She did so after initially objecting to a $1.2 million emergency contract with Whelan Security Co. for private guards through the end of the year. She later agreed to such a contract.
Green’s spokesman, Tyson Pruitt, said Green had been concerned that the city adhere to policies requiring that it exhaust all efforts to fill vacancies for permanent positions before contracting for any temporary workers.
Frank, in a Feb. 16 email released by Green’s office, said “it appears the vacancies were being held for possible closure of MSI.” Frank declined to comment this week.
Waelterman, though, said the Krewson administration had continued efforts to fill corrections vacancies even while the number of detainees at the workhouse declined over the past year.
The Board of Aldermen last year passed a bill asking the corrections director to prepare a plan to shut down the workhouse by the end of December, but the facility remains open with no immediate plans for closure.
Corrections officials say the jail is still needed because of coronavirus distancing requirements and because of damage caused at the main jail during the Feb. 6 incident.
