IT’S TIME TO STOP THROWING PEOPLE AWAY
In 2022, we successfully emptied the Workhouse jail. It has sat vacant ever since. But empty does not equal closed. There’s still work to be done.
Mayor Tishaura Jones has proposed building so-called “tiny homes“on the Workhouse grounds. The last thing we need is to take another vulnerable population with unmet needs and discard them at the toxic Workhouse site. Help us tell St. Louis it’s time to stop throwing people away.
Click the image below to sign the petition.
The Re-envisioning the Workhouse report is complete.
After 6+ years of organizing and advocacy by the Close the Workhouse, a report 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 was 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 managed to keep part of the Workhouse open, and was 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. CTW held a town hall on February 8, 2020 with Mayor Tishaura Jones.
At the top of that list, we called for the Jones administration to provide a clear commitment and timeline for the permanent closure of the Workhouse. Jones has not done that; however, by June 2022, the City transferred people to CJC. In the past two years, weeds have overtaken the building as the former jail has sat empty.
But, empty is not closed. And, despite a City-funded community outreach process that recommended what should become of the building and land, the Jones administration has disregarded what the people of St. Louis want to see.
