ST. LOUIS — A correctional officer has been placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into how a handcuffed prisoner suffered a head injury that required hospitalization, 5 On Your Side has learned.
Public Safety spokesman Monte Chambers did not provide any details of the alleged incident, other than a statement which read: “The safety and security of our detainees remains a top priority. The Department of Public Safety is currently in the early stages of our investigation into this incident.”
A source familiar with that investigation told 5 On Your Side the inmate was refusing to go back into his unit, became combative and went to the floor before threatening to kill the corrections officer.
The source said the officer then told the inmate to stay on the ground, but he started to get up and hit his head when the officer used force to take him down. He began bleeding, was taken to the hospital and later returned.
The incident is one of many that have happened at the City Justice Center in recent years and months.
On Thursday, members of a civilian oversight board formed to investigate safety issues had their first tour of the facility in years to meet with detainees. They discovered inmates did not know how to file complaints with them.
“We came to realize that we’ve got to do a better job in explaining to lawyers how their clients can make complaints,” said the Rev. Darryl Gray, chairman of the committee.
Detention Facilities Oversight Board member Pam Walker agreed.
“The people who the program is supposed to benefit don’t know about it,” Walker said.
Charges were filed against two inmates in December who allegedly assaulted a correctional officer after stealing his pepper spray and radio inside the St. Louis City Justice Center in October. It was the second attack on a guard at the facility in recent months.
Two inmates attacked a different guard on Aug. 22, stealing his radio, keys and pepper spray and freed about 40 to 50 inmates from their cells.
The city’s Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah called it a “hostage situation,” while an employee who talked to the I-Team called it an “all-out riot.”
The city’s jail has also come under scrutiny following the deaths of 10 inmates during the past two years.