Criminal justice system in St Louis, Missouri incarcerates people in the city’s infamous “workhouse” jail. 98% of inmates there, legally innocent but detained pre-trial because couldn’t afford bail. The average stay in the St Louis workhouse is more than 190 days. There is a growing movement of organizers, lawyers and those formerly incarcerated at the workhouse calling for the building, formally known as Medium Security Institution, to be shuttered. Earlier this month, the campaign #closetheworkhouse released a report demanding its closure, and calling the workhouse a site of “unspeakably hellish conditions” and an extension of a racist criminal justice system. Of those incarcerated in the St Louis workhouse, 90% are black, despite the fact that less than 50% of the city is black.
— source theguardian.com | 2018/10/24