October 20, 2026
(ST. LOUIS, MO)–A coalition of local, Black-led organizations dedicated to decarceration and re-envisioning public safety has issued an open response to the St. Louis City NAACP regarding its recent report about the City Justice Center (CJC). While acknowledging shared concerns over inhumane conditions, medical care, and accountability at the CJC, the coalition strongly opposes any recommendation to expand St. Louis’s jail capacity or build a new facility. The response not only cautions against this approach, but corrects the misleading premises used to support the NAACP’s argument.
Written as a direct, open letter to the local NAACP, the coalition appeals to shared values, stating: “given our shared concern for Black people and communities in this region that have been marginalized and disempowered for generations, we believe it is essential to recognize that any call to expand the carceral footprint is a call to criminalize and cage more Black bodies.”
The response is grounded in a historical understanding that St. Louis’s criminal legal system and detention facilities have long been sites of death and devastation, impacting primarily Black residents from resource-starved communities. As such, to expand or build a new jail is not only unwise, but irresponsible, and especially when the call for expansion relies on misrepresentations of and omissions from local history, bail reform, and community advocacy. These include:
- Mischaracterizing the Workhouse: The report incorrectly frames the Workhouse as a minor “436-bed overflow facility” when, in actuality, the city expanded the Workhouse to 1,222 beds in 2002, which inherently guaranteed more people were detained pretrial. Closing it significantly cut incarceration levels, an impact that must be protected. Additionally, the letter reiterates a critical correction: severe issues at CJC predate the Workhouse closure, reflecting the fact that jails are fundamentally inhumane and the problems in the CJC cannot simply be attributed to the Workhouse.
- Distorting Bail Reform: The report mischaracterizes local bail reform efforts by suggesting that they have been narrowly focused on the elimination of cash bail and ignored other elements of the pretrial detention system. In fact, community efforts to eliminate cash bail have always been paired with calls for more investment in community resources and diversion away from the criminal legal system. While eliminating cash bail has contributed to a lower jail population overall, judges shifting from “cash bail” to “no bail allowed” ensured that far too many presumptively innocent people have not been able to fight their cases from home, leaving them jailed at CJC for months and years.
- Ignoring Impacted Voices: the NAACP relied entirely on city officials, police, and contractors, the very parties responsible for creating these conditions; and ignored people detained and their families, court watchers, and advocates who have raised concerns, called for change, transparency, and accountability, and litigated these issues.
The coalition urges the St. Louis City NAACP to retract its recommendation for jail expansion and align around community-based solutions instead of cages.
The full open letter is available here.
For nearly a decade, the organizations signed onto the letter– Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, Care Not Cages campaign, [Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression], Freedom Community Center, Missouri Justice Coalition, No More Jail Deaths campaign, [Organization for Black Struggle], and Some Things Must Be Heard– have led efforts supporting alternatives to incarceration and investment into community wellbeing in St. Louis.
Some of the key initiatives anchored by coalition members include: the Close the Workhouse campaign, the Prosecutor Organizing Table, the Defund. Re-envision. Transform campaign, and The People’s Plan St. Louis.
Media Contact:
Z Gorley, Director of Communications, ArchCity Defenders
(314) 898-8185 | zgorley@archcitydefenders.org