ST. LOUIS — City officials have agreed to pay $4 million to settle a lawsuit claiming “hellish and inhumane conditions” at the now-defunct Medium Security Institution, signaling the end of a seven-year legal battle over the jail.
Roughly 16,000 former detainees will be eligible to receive part of the settlement. Each will receive a portion based on how many file claims and how long each stayed at the facility. But if all who are eligible apply, the average would be about $250 each, before attorneys fees and other costs. The proposal is subject to a judge’s approval.
The settlement marks one of the final chapters in more than a decade of debate over the facility known as the Workhouse — long pilloried by activists as a hotbox of pests, mold and other inhumanities. The facility closed in 2022 and is currently being demolished.
“This is a really significant outcome,” Blake Strode, executive director of nonprofit law firm ArchCity Defenders, said in an interview. “I think this marks a moment when many of the things the people who suffered inside of that jail told us are — in my view — vindicated in part by this outcome.”
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Legal payouts have hammered the city this year. Since Jan. 31, ӣƵ has agreed or been ordered to pay roughly $25 million: A federal jury awarded a record $19 million to the family of a man shot and killed by police. City lawyers agreed to pay $450,000 to a Tennessee teen whose legs were severed in a downtown crash. Another man was awarded $1.54 million after a 30-foot tree branch fell on him at a bus stop, cracking his skull and sending him to the hospital.
Mayor Cara Spencer, at a press conference on Tuesday, said she couldn’t comment specifically on the recent lawsuits because payouts are still pending. But the amounts and the allegations, she said, “really speak to needed changes in our city.”
“We’re taking a look at the procedures and policies in place that have gotten us to this legal action,” she said.
The city denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement filed Tuesday, but agreed to never again use the Workhouse to house detainees.
Spencer said she would support it.
The Workhouse, which sits along the north Riverfront on Hall Street about six miles north of downtown, opened in 1966 to replace a crowded and dirty South Side facility.
By 1981, the ӣƵ Board of Adult Welfare labeled it crowded and lacking staff. Reports from subsequent years called restrooms “atrocious.” Inmates needed mattresses and blankets. Some escaped. Guards encouraged fights. The air conditioning didn’t work.
But efforts to close the facility didn’t begin in earnest until the wake of the Ferguson protests.
In 2016, then-city Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones wrote an calling for an investigation into the facility, citing stories from inmates and workers about black mold, freezing temperatures and broken security systems.
City officials rebuffed those efforts and instead poured millions into renovations at the facility, including new HVAC systems, security cameras, restroom renovations and shower and electrical upgrades.
But activists still called for its closure.
In 2017, ArchCity Defenders sued on behalf of seven former inmates, claiming constitutional violations. ӣƵ officials had ignored problems with ventilation, fungal outbreaks, a lack of fresh water and adequate restrooms, the suit said. They sought class-action status for everyone who had been housed there.
Then-Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass denied claims of mold and infestations. The jail is “showing signs of disrepair, but it’s clean,” he said.
The case dragged through the courts. It went to mediation multiple times, but no resolution was reached, according to court documents. Lawyers fought about evidence and the number of people who could sue.
Meanwhile, pressure from activists and former inmates to close the workhouse continued to mount. Jones, who took office as mayor in 2021, vowed to close it in her first 100 days. It was finally emptied in 2022. Demolition began in March.
There are no formal plans about what to do with the site.
In February, the city and Workhouse detainees agreed to settle the case.
The preliminary agreement was filed Tuesday in federal court, and ArchCity has set up a website for people who may be eligible for money: .
Strode noted it was one of several cases in recent years where municipalities in the ӣƵ region have been forced pay settlements or judgments for jail conditions or other public safety concerns.
In 2023, ӣƵ paid out more than $10 million to people who said their rights were violated during 2017 protests downtown, including an undercover officer who was beaten by his colleagues. ӣƵ County settled a lawsuit the previous year over an inmate death at its jail for $1.2 million. Several county municipalities agreed in recent years to pay nearly $20 million to settle claims that they illegally jailed people for unpaid debts.
Strode said such lawsuits are a way to hold governments accountable for wrongdoing and to potentially bring about changes.
“We all pay taxes, we all know how this works,” he said, “and ultimately we want our systems to act responsibly.”
A hearing to finalize the settlement agreement has not been set.
Demolition began at the Medium Security Institution, the city jail commonly known as the workhouse, in the North Riverfront neighborhood on March 18, 2025 with a speech beforehand by ӣƵ Mayor Tishaura Jones. Video by Allie Schallert, aschallert@post-dispatch.com
