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Organizer for Close the Workhouse and Manager of Community Collaborations, Inez Bordeaux, speaks truth to power. We will Close the Workhouse in 2020.

THE CAMPAIGN TO CLOSE THE WORKHOUSE

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

The City of St. Louis daily condemns hundreds of presumptively innocent people to suffer in unspeakably hellish and inhumane conditions at the Workhouse. St. Louis City’s Medium Security Institution (MSI) infamously inherited the name “the Workhouse” as inmates in earlier versions of the jail were sentenced to forced labor when they could not afford to pay their fines. Today, people routinely remain incarcerated due to their inability to afford unconstitutionally high cash bails. The vast majority of people held at the Workhouse are awaiting trial and remain caged and criminalized due to their poverty. They face horrific conditions in the jail, including extreme heat and cold, abysmal medical care, rats and cockroach infestations, and mold.

 
 
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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 us know what you think should be done with the space!

 
 

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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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 three primary organizational partners work in collaboration everyday in St. Louis to get people free: Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, and Bail Project St. Louis.

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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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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 or call (314) 722-5196 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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