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The Re-envisioning the Workhouse report is complete.

After 6+ years of organizing and advocacy by the Close the Workhouse, a report has reached the Mayor’s desk with recommendations for the building and the surrounding 30 acres.

Read the press release. Read the report:

Organizer for Close the Workhouse and Manager of Community Collaborations, Inez Bordeaux, speaks truth to power. We will Close the Workhouse in 2022.

THE CAMPAIGN TO CLOSE THE WORKHOUSE

The Workhouse must be closed, and no new jail should be put in its place.

The Workhouse is a hellish and inhumane jail in St. Louis City that has caused harm to thousands and thousands of Black St. Louisans and Black families over the past 50 years. 

Over time, the Workhouse has prompted continuous public scrutiny and advocacy.

In April 2018, people directly impacted by the Workhouse and allies came together to start the Close the Workhouse (CTW) campaign, with the common goal of permanently closing the Workhouse and ensuring a new jail is not built in its place. 

The campaign published the first Plan to Close the Workhouse Report in September 2018, followed by an updated report in January 2019. 

After months and months of CTW building a large and impactful base of supporters, the St. Louis Board of Alderman voted unanimously on Board Bill 92, which provided a way for the City to close the jail in 2020. Since that vote, the cost of the Workhouse was defunded from the City’s 2021 budget and while funds were reallocated to the Division of Re-Entry, the City has managed to keep part of the Workhouse open, and been unclear about the timeline to permanently close the jail. In June 2021, the City transferred people detained pretrial to the City Justice Center (CJC) the City’s other jail, and the Workhouse was empty for the first time in history. Since then, the campaign has continued to advocate for the permanent closure of the Workhouse in many ways– through social media, monthly meetings, a petition, updated targets and demands, and an upcoming town hall on February 8th with Mayor Tishaura Jones. 

At the top of that list is for the Jones administration to provide a clear commitment and timeline for the permanent closure of the Workhouse.

 
 
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Respond to our Survey!

The Workhouse is closing. Just as the campaign turned to the community to close the Workhouse, we now turn back to the community once again to decide what to do with it. The Workhouse has hurt Black and other marginalized groups for decades, and with its closure we have the opportunity to create something that no longer takes and destroys, but instead supports and uplifts those who have been most impacted.

Use this survey to let the City know what you think should be done with the space!

 
 

Re-envisioning Public Safety Town Hall

Due to rising COVID cases, this joint meeting with the Close the Workhouse and Defund. Re-envision. Transform with Mayor Tishaura Jones has been postponed and moved to a virtual location. Join us on February 8th at 6pm. Register here and stay tuned for more information: bit.ly/ReenvisioningTownHall

 
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ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

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The Close the Workhouse campaign aims to attack mass incarceration, without legitimizing or justifying the continued caging of people as punishment. We call for the closure of the Medium Security Institute, better known in St. Louis as the Workhouse, an end to wealth based pretrial detention, and the reinvestment of the money used to cage poor people and Black people into rebuilding the most impacted neighborhoods in this region.

The Workhouse is part and parcel of a racist and predatory system of mass incarceration that grew directly out of slavery and Jim Crow and works to perpetuate this shameful legacy in America. The story of the Workhouse illustrates this oppressive history.

The campaign is a collaboration of the individuals subjected to incarceration at the Workhouse and lawyers and activists engaged on the issue. The campaign’s primary organizational partners work in collaboration everyday in St. Louis to get people free: Action St. Louis and ArchCity Defenders.

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The campaign emerges directly from the outcry that was the Ferguson Uprising. It is grounded in a commitment to end an ongoing war against Black people that has been waged against generations of families in St. Louis.

Our aim is not to reform but rather dismantle a racist system that has destroyed lives and to abolish the practice of criminalizing the poor. We not only seek to close the workhouse but also to use the money currently spent to cage Black people to rebuild the most impacted communities. We embrace this task in order to vindicate the victims of the Workhouse and to secure future generations’ ability to thrive.

 
 
 
 

Close The Workhouse Report 2.0

On January 14th at a press conference in City Hall, members of the Close the Workhouse (CtW) campaign shared details of a new report outlining a plan to permanently shutter the City’s Medium Security Institution, commonly known as the Workhouse.

The campaign announced its relaunch with a newly updated report. Read it here, or learn more from the Press Release.

See more Launch Week 2020 events by checking our Facebook event page.

 
Read the updated report here

Read the updated report here

 
Read the original report here.

Read the original report here.

 
 
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COVID-19 ADVOCACY

Long before the threats of COVID-19, St. Louis City's 'Medium Security Institution' aka 'the Workhouse' was known for caging poor people and Black people pretrial in hellish and inhumane conditions (i.e. black mold, violent-unsafe, mice & rat infestation, mice feces in food, bug and roach infestation, snakes in showers, terrible medical care). 

While it has a capacity of 1138, the number of people jailed at the Workhouse has steadily decreased to a population of 92 as a result of community organizing, political pressure, community and Bail Project bailouts and prosecutorial reforms. 

The Workhouse has historically cost taxpayers $16M annually. With the 80% decrease in the jail, City of St. Louis has proposed $7.6M of your tax dollars be allocated to the Workhouse. While that is a step in the right direction, the City needs to call a spade a spade and stop wasting our tax dollars on an irredeemable place that cages people who are legally presumed innocent and can’t afford money bail to buy their freedom.

 
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Wondering how you can support the Close the Workhouse campaign right now?

Commit to completing two things from our Organizing Checklist each day!

Download the Organizing Checklist here.

 
 
 
 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

By closing the Workhouse, St. Louis can achieve justice for thousands and focus on the important work of healing and rebuilding the communities where the Workhouse has brought suffering. Join the Close the Workhouse campaign in calling for St. Louisans to boldly reimagine our city’s failed criminal legal system and become a national leader in ending mass incarceration.

 
 
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DONATE

We are a grassroots campaign and appreciate your support. Signal that this contribution is for #ClosetheWorkhouse in the comment box. 

 

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CONNECT

If you or your family has been directly impacted by the Workhouse, come to our next community member meeting, email ClosetheWorkhouse@gmail.com for details. 

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VOLUNTEER

If you are an ally and would like to volunteer for the campaign, email ClosetheWorkhouse@gmail.com with subject line “Volunteer.”

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