By Kelsey Landis
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
CLAYTON — St. Louis County’s jail population has skyrocketed over the past two years, officials reported on Thursday, in part because the courts are keeping people jailed even when they’re charged with smaller crimes.
Judges are getting tired of seeing the same people cycle through their courtrooms on charges such as car theft, and they’re keeping suspects in jail, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said at a crime commission meeting. Plus, the courts are still working through a backlog created during the COVID-19 pandemic. And judges are sending people to jail with higher bonds that have to be paid fully in cash, said jail Director Kito Bess .
County Executive Sam Page said the jail population is bad for the county budget and for county residents.
“It impacts the folks that need to be processed, that either need to move on to state prison or need to go back and support their families and go back to work,” Page said at the meeting. “And it impacts the victims, too, who are waiting to get resolution.”
The number of people in the jail accused of low-level felonies has increased by 141% since the end of 2022, while the number accused of more serious felonies has increased by just 23%, according to jail data. The total population near the end of October 2022 was 778, and had risen to 1,228 on Monday — an increase of nearly 60%.
To reduce the population, St. Louis County is exploring a revised pre-trial services program where the jail would work with the court to decide if some people could be released on supervision while they await trial.
The county is developing new policies for the program now, Bess said, including revamped qualifications, a new investigative worksheet used to collect information from defendants, and a review of electronic monitoring and how the county can stay in direct contact with defendants.
Some accused of low-level felonies could be considered for the program, Bess said. Low-level felonies range from involuntary manslaughter to burglary to domestic assault.
The goal of expanding pre-trial services, Bess said at September’s crime commission meeting, is to provide recommendations to the court with more options and data, while making sure people who are released don’t pose a threat to the community. The county has increased staffing in pre-trial services from three to six.
Bess has been collected feedback from the courts as it reviews the program.
But even lower-level crimes affect victims, said Bell, who’s running for Congress . When someone is a victim of a carjacking, they might not be able to get to work. There’s trauma if they had a gun pointed at them, he said. The county needs to invest in programs that help people avoid the criminal justice system, such as providing treatment, education and job training, Bell said.
But pre-trial release programs can be valuable, too, he said.
“We start seeing complementary impacts where law enforcement can do their job and have more options, where prosecutors, the courts, our jail systems all have more options,” Bell said.
Crime across the board is flat in St. Louis County, said Chief Kenneth Gregory .
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