East St. Louis closes its jail over possible mold problem

A complaint of unsanitary conditions lodged Monday morning by a police officer prompted city leaders to shut down the East St. Louis jail and move all of its prisoners to the St. Clair County Jail.

City manager Courtney Logan said the complaint is unfounded and is still under investigation. But in the interest of the health and safety of the employees and prisoners, the prisoners who were being housed there were removed from their cells and transported to the county jail.

Logan said the jail has flooded numerous times, and as a result there may be some mold there. But he insisted that nothing had been confirmed as of Tuesday. The complaint was being investigated.

The officer, whose identity was not released, filed the complaint Monday morning. When Logan arrived about 9 a.m., he made the decision to close the jail and have the prisoners transferred.

“I received a complaint from an officer and I felt it was probably incumbent upon us to shut the jail down,” Logan said.

He added, “We are currently investigating. I had plumbers to come out to look at the situation. They were televising the pipe to try to figure out why we’ve had flooding like we’ve had.”

St. Clair County Sheriff Richard “Rick” Watson said when the jail was closed Monday, one male and one female prisoner were transferred to the county jail.

“It’s just a temporary thing while they get the jail up to standards. They have to do some renovation work. Their jail is a holdover facility. They can only hold prisoners for 48 hours, and then we get them anyway,” Watson said.

For now, anyone arrested by East St. Louis Police will be taken to the county jail instead of first being held at the city jail.

Watson didn’t know how long the situation would exist. He said it will go on “until they can bring their jail up to standard so they can pass inspection.”

He said, “It’s our job to help. We have to help every community. It’s not just East St. Louis. This sort of thing has happened in other places, too.”

Logan said in April, when he joined Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks’ administration, he hired a company called Bio Fresh to bio-clean the jail.

“Bio cleans bacteria and other things out of jails,” Logan said. “Heath and safety is a priority and I have taken a pro-active role.”

Jackson-Hicks said she’s aware the jail has flooded multiple tiems.

“Yes. I am aware of the complaint. The city manager shut the jail down to prevent employees or prisoners from getting sick,” Jackson-Hicks said.

She said she had not seen any mold in the jail but was aware that there’s possibly mold in the jail.

“We are working to get the jail issue resolved,” she said.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 2:40 PM with the headline "East St. Louis closes its jail over possible mold problem."