ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced a new approach to reducing crime and increasing the safety of people in St. Louis Wednesday morning.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced the policy changes at 9 a.m.
“Gardner is taking a new approach, one where we work with service providers to help address the underlying drivers of crime including substance use disorders, mental illness, joblessness, and hopelessness while reserving our harshest response (incarceration) for those who truly are a danger to our community,” a news release stated.
The changes included changes to the charging policy, alternatives to prison time and adjustments to bail and bond practices.
Gardner said St. Louis has a history of high arrest rates, high conviction rates, and long prison sentences. And she said those are heavy-handed approaches that aren't making us any safer but are making it harder for some people to get a job or support their families.
She appeared in north St. Louis alongside community and religious leaders. Together they unveiled a new blueprint for prosecuting crime, including how to reduce the population at the Workhouse.
Gardner said that means turning some cases away, for instance, arrests with not enough evidence or no public safety threat. It also means issuing more court summons, instead of arrest warrants. Those low-level charges include things like possession of less than 100 grams of marijuana.
And she wants to expand diversion programs. That means connecting more defendants to services that treat the root causes of crime like drugs and mental health.
Gardner's not talking about violent offenders who pose a danger. She said jail time is still on the table for those cases.
The Vera Institute of Justice conducted research on the City of St. Louis to see what kind of changes could help make the city safer. Members of the nonprofit will be on hand Wednesday morning to answer questions about what they found and the policies that are changing because of their research.
Gardner made headlines Tuesday after sending a letter to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department criticizing the way it handled the initial investigation into the shooting death of a officer Katlyn Alix. She said it was inappropriate for the department to approach the shooting as an ‘accident’ so quickly without a full investigation.