ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Inmates at the City Justice Center downtown smashed out windows and threw debris to the ground below in a disturbance that began about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. A spokesman for the mayor said all the inmates were "back in custody" shortly before 10 a.m.
About 115 detainees on the fourth floor of the jail had set fires, flooded floors and clogged toilets, Jacob Long, spokesman for Mayor Lyda Krewson, said. About 65 inmates were being transferred to the Medium Security Institution, also known as the Workhouse, this morning, Long said.
Inmates were seen gathered at the shattered windows of an upper floor of the jail about 6:30 a.m. They broke adjacent windows and threw chairs and other debris to the sidewalk below on Tucker Boulevard.
Flames could be seen just inside the windows and items appeared to have been set on fire before being thrown to the sidewalk below. Firefighters and emergency vehicles were at the scene shortly before 7 a.m. Dozens of people gathered to watch from the other side of Tucker and at least one live video of the disturbance was posted to Facebook.
Long earlier had called the situation a "very dangerous disturbance" and said Krewson and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards were at the scene.
Long had said shortly before 9 a.m. that sheriff's officers and police were still working to get the detainees back into custody. There are 633 people in custody at the jail, but the disturbance involved only the fourth floor.
It wasn't clear how inmates were able to apparently gain control of that portion of the jail.
By 10 a.m., cleanup and repair work had begun, Long said.
It was at least the third disturbance at the CJC in recent weeks. Another occurred the last week of December and a second just days later. In those cases inmates had expressed concern about unsafe conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Dozens of inmates were transferred to the St. Louis Medium Security Institution following those earlier disruptions.
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