ST. LOUIS — A man died in the City Justice Center Saturday morning, according to a statement from the Mayor's office.
The press release said the man, who was a detainee, died around 7 a.m., and the cause of death is under investigation.
The name of the man was not included in the statement.
The Mayor's office plans to complete the investigation, update the family of the deceased, and respect their privacy, the statement said.
The Detention Facilities Oversight Board and the Board of Alderman Public Safety Committee have been notified.
Since 2020, 14 inmates have died at the St. Louis City Justice Center, two of them died this year.
Chair of the Detention Facilities Oversight Board Rev. Darryl Gray said he received the call about the tragedy from Public safety Director Charles Coyle.
"A young man, a detainee, had gone into cardiac arrest. And that time, that was all the information that he had. I subsequently learned that the person was still on the second floor, which is basically the processing unit," Gray said.
Detectives with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Force Investigations Unit were called to the jail where the man was found unconscious. They say in a statement first responders tried to help the man but he ended up dying, "While the investigation is early, there are no obvious signs of trauma."
The official cause of death has not been released.
Gray said the board is still concerned about the medical care inside the jail.
"If we don't have an effective medical unit, as we have seen in the past, oftentimes, people with existing conditions end up in the prison population. And subsequently we've had those who have died because we have not been able to diagnose or analyze at that critical junction," Gray said.
As of Sunday, there were 761 inmates at the CJC.
Gray said the facility is still understaffed.
"Processing can be a logger jam, which means that you've got too many detainees in holding cells, dozens at a time and so things occur. And so because you're in processing, you haven't weeded out the violent offender and the nonviolent offender," Gray said.
He said they are still having trouble investigating numerous complaints, some of which ended in death.
"Nobody should go to jail and being in jail becomes a death sentence, period," Gray said.
Gray said the Acting Jail Commissioner Tammy Ross has not responded to their requests for meetings or for information.